You're aware of the Point A and the Point B and don't wanna end up crossin' that asymptote. That's further than most people get.

[Further than he ever got. He never set a line of standards for himself; just kinda had a vague awareness, as he continued to slip into a complete and genuine cloud of apathy, that maybe what he was doing weren't real okay, but without any earnest desire to alter his trajectory.

You think, upon becoming aware of your own flaws, that that'll somehow make you impervious to their effects. Only pretty soon it just turns into an advanced form of denial.]