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Experimentation and practice both consist of repeating the same behavior. If you beat your head against the wall enough times sometimes the wall gives way. It
by awinter-py 10y ago
Experimentation and practice both consist of repeating the same behavior.
If you beat your head against the wall enough times sometimes the wall gives way.
It's not useful to expect to be successful on the first try.
- theprotocol 10y agoBut the circumstances having changed (the wall gets progressively weaker with each attempt) can be taken to mean that you aren't quite "doing the same thing" and so this terrible quote sadly lives on in the minds of the pedantic.
- halomru 10y agoBy that definition, in the real world you never do the same thing twice. Your environment always changes (in fact there are several natural laws dictating that it does). From the pedantic viewpoint the quote may be true, but then it doesn't say anything useful anymore.
- theprotocol 10y agoWe're in agreement on that, and that's why this quote is terrible and amounts to nothing.
- bowlich 10y ago“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” ― Heraclitus (I thought this quote was Xeno, but the internet says I'm wrong)
- awinter-py 10y agofair point -- we are subtly varying our practice attempts and the world is subtly changing, and sometimes those trends intersect in such a way that the clouds part.