Duelling Slogans

[Joe]

Consider the following two slogans:

(1) If you don't succeed at first, try, try again.

(2) The definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over again, and expect different results.

I have these two slogans bouncing around in my head. I feel like one of those robots from "Star Trek:The Original Series" who would be programmed with contradictory imperatives, try to reconcile them, fail, and short-circuit into an inoperable condition. Fried, frazzled, defunct.

I guess I am currently leaning a bit toward slogan number 1. I do try some things over and over, and, to my astonishment, they often eventually work.

I am reminded here of a scene from the wonderful film The King's Speech. Elizabeth is explaining to Bertie why he had to ask her to marry him three times before she would say "yes." "It wasn't because I didn't love you. It was that I dreaded a public life, a life no longer my own. But then I thought, Bertie stutters so beautifully, they will leave us alone. So I said 'yes.'"

Please tell us how you relate to these two slogans, and what your experiences have been.

 

[Calliegirl]

I think they could compliment each other if you look at it this way.
If you failed the first time, try it from a different approach. Insanity would be using the same failed approach over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

An example: There's a tree filled with apples and you want to pick one. The one you want is just out of reach and you keep jumping and trying to grab it over and over again even though it's too high. Instead you could try for a lower apple, climb the tree, or use something to grab it or knock it down.

 

[Clueless Git]

Heh! Good topic idea, Joe

Consider the following two slogans:

(1) If you don't succeed at first, try, try again.

(2) The definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over again, and expect different results.

Please tell us how you relate to these two slogans, and what your experiences have been.

As Callie already said; Trying again does not necessarily mean trying in exactly the same way again.

The difference, I think, twix #1 and #2 is the application (or not) of the theory/wotchamightliketocallit of continuous improvement: Plan, act, evaluate result, adjust plan, act again, repeat ad-finitum.

On the other side of the coin is having the wisdom to know when you really are just , though.

 

[Clueless Git]

And one from me ...

1. Two many cooks spoil the broth.

2. Many hands make light work.

 

[Ann Chovie]

Consider the following two slogans:

(1) If you don't succeed at first, try, try again.

.

Yes to what everyone else said!

You try at first and when you fail you are not too wrecked because there is always next time, so quite optimistically you try again doing exactly the same thing, with exactly the same amount of effort and exactly the same thought pattern and strangely you fail!

So after trying and trying in this vein you decide this is definitely something you simply CANNOT do and your level of effort actually decreases each time as does your level of confidence so you end up making more of a hash than the very first time you failed!

It is all about weighing up WHY you failed the first time (the important time), trying it a slightly different way but with a completely different thought pattern which tells you that failure is simply no longer an option. And you will master it even if it kills you!!!

 

[Ann Chovie]

What about the confusion between ...

1 Absence makes the heart grow fonder
2 Out of sight is out of mind?

 

[Blobbenstein]

the reason for failing might not be because a person is doing things incorrectly.....take hitching....you might stand there for half an hour without getting a lift, so you could give up, or try for another half hour.....there is nothing wrong with what the person is doing necessarily, and eventually they might get a lift.

 

[Ann Chovie]

the reason for failing might not be because a person is doing things incorrectly.....take hitching....you might stand there for half an hour without getting a lift, so you could give up, or try for another half hour.....there is nothing wrong with what the person is doing necessarily, and eventually they might get a lift.

Yes , agred there may be nothing wrong or to improve on your hitching style its just that you havent struck lucky but..

Might that be a case of 'in the wrong place at the wrong time' ? Prehaps the road is to too busy for people to pull to the side, or there are no pull in places anyway ?

Or.. maybe in the rush hour no one has time to stop whereas on a Sunday afternoon they might?

OR the fact that your 'the end of the world is nigh' placard is too cumbersome for the car and makes people nervous?
-

 

[Ann Chovie]

..there is nothing wrong with what the person is doing necessarily, and eventually they might get a lift.

As a child my parents would often pick up hitchhikers which as a bored only child in the back of the car I found exciting and interesting. But they did have 'road rules'

Dad would often slow down for a hitchiker only for him to turn round to display a guitar strung across his back. My mum would bark loudly at him 'move on move on he has a guitar' and dad would speed away leaving the poor hitchiker completely confused.

This rule was never explained to me but then this was the sixties ..guitar probably equated to drug crazy daughter deflowering hippy to country folk like my parents.

 

[Blobbenstein]

or maybe if you wanted to toss ten heads in a row, when tossing a coin, you just have to keep trying, or other examples that don't require skill, but just take perseverance.

 

[ledboots]

the reason for failing might not be because a person is doing things incorrectly.....take hitching....you might stand there for half an hour without getting a lift, so you could give up, or try for another half hour.....there is nothing wrong with what the person is doing necessarily, and eventually they might get a lift.

A friend of mine used to hitchhike and hold a sign with his destination on it, spelled wrong on purpose. Lots of people stopped to give him a ride just to correct his spelling.

And on topic, I think keeping on trying in different ways is a good compromise. Plus Google other ways to do the thing.

 

[Blobbenstein]

A friend of mine used to hitchhike and hold a sign with his destination on it, spelled wrong on purpose. Lots of people stopped to give him a ride just to correct his spelling.

that's clever, but you will get lifts with pedants....