--- title: Paracelsus Maxim | daily.dev description: Martin Fowler explores the idea he calls the Paracelsus Maxim, borrowed from the 16th-century physician's observation that 'the dose makes the poison.' He... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/paracelsus-maxim-ujkpemnfb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Paracelsus Maxim | daily.dev og:description: Martin Fowler explores the idea he calls the Paracelsus Maxim, borrowed from the 16th-century physician's observation that 'the dose makes the poison.' He... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/paracelsus-maxim-ujkpemnfb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/UJkPemNFb.png og:image:alt: Paracelsus Maxim og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Paracelsus Maxim **[Martin Fowler](https://daily.dev/sources/mafo)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Martin Fowler explores the idea he calls the Paracelsus Maxim, borrowed from the 16th-century physician's observation that 'the dose makes the poison.' He argues many programming and life habits aren't simply good or bad but depend on context and dosage, using global data as an example: a small amount, especially if immutable, can be useful for propagating information, but too much becomes dangerous. The takeaway is to ask 'in what contexts' and 'in what doses' when judging whether a practice is beneficial or harmful. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What if We Thought About Risk Decisions Differently?](https://daily.dev/posts/what-if-we-thought-about-risk-decisions-differently--pgzn48hw0) · Jacob Kaplan-Moss · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/paracelsus-maxim-ujkpemnfb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Paracelsus Maxim","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/paracelsus-maxim-ujkpemnfb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/paracelsus-maxim-ujkpemnfb"},"datePublished":"2026-09-02T22:08:51.671Z","dateModified":"2026-09-03T02:25:48.201Z","description":"Martin Fowler explores the idea he calls the Paracelsus Maxim, borrowed from the 16th-century physician's observation that 'the dose makes the poison.' He...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Martin Fowler","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Martin Fowler","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/mafo","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/mafo"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/paracelsus-maxim-ujkpemnfb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"general-programming","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Martin Fowler","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/mafo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Paracelsus Maxim"}]} ```