Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
10 02 2007To close out the week, I wanted to post some thoughts on a quote I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.
In the typical Google search for the quotation, it’s quoted by marketers, life coaches and sofa philosophers throughout the Internet. This contradictory post that states that this is the dumbest thing ever repeated by smart people stands in the face of all these hoorah-hoorah posts that use the quotation as a motivation to enact change in peoples’ lives, marketing campaigns, organizations or anything else anyone can think of.
Of course, this quotation is not meant to be taken literally, it’s origins are not actually verifiable and it’s not universally applicable.
The quotation in fact encourages experimentation by trying different things. Don’t alter your existence completely, but understand that eventually you need to smarten up if things you are doing aren’t producing the results you desire.
Similarly, it’s well known that persistence is the most common trait that characterizes a successful entrepreneur who’s made it. It could also be said that the quotation discourages persistence. A good quote (source):
Sometimes doing the same thing a second time when it hasn’t worked the first is indeed just foolish. But sometimes it’s shrewd. Wisdom consists, in part, in knowing the difference. Flexibility is a virtue. But in most matters, flexibility properly kicks in only after persistence has been given a fair chance.
So there we go. Persistence and experimentation working one after another. One without the other really isn’t worth much independent of the other.
FYI, I recently searched for a reliable attribution to that phrase, and believe I’ve found one:
“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
- Sudden Death by Rita Mae Brown, Bantam Books, New York, 1983, p. 68.
It was by EInstein, it is meant to be taken literally, and it does not neccesarily mean we should experiment. The point of this quote is to point out that every person is insane becuase we all try to better our situation by using our on methods that often don’t work.
Enough said!! Thank you Bubba…LOL Who wrote this article again???
Ah..the results are not always fact, but can merely be opinions to those
presented for, so by repeating the doing doesn’t necessarily make you crazy,
it just depends by whom.
Ah..the results are not always fact, but can merely be opinions to those`presented for, so by repeating the doing doesn’t necessarily make you crazy, it just depends by whom.
Who decides the results are final , when many results can be altered and changed each time by the automatic hand of fate, so therefore repeating the same thing might be a smart idea. HOW MANY TIMES DID BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FLY HIS KITE BEFORE HE GOT THE RESULT HE KNEW WOULD EVENTUALY HAPPEN ?
I think the jest is that if you don’t change your approach when it doesn’t come in your favor, then your are not learning from each encounter and experience.
-Nathan
[...] “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” [...]
Thank you! You have expressed what has always bothered me about that quote: it’s unevenness. Practice and Persistence is absolutely necessary TO “produce different results” (i.e playing the violin, ballet, gymnastics, sports, education, writing and other skills etc.) It’s only when I’m in a bad relationship (be it at work, family, lover etc) and I keep doing the same thing and they keep doing the same thing that there is no difference in the outcome. So it’s necessary to learn discernment as to what one has control over (and can change, get different results) and what one can’t.
ANYTHING involving other people or “forces beyond our control” (i.e. nature, etc.) may well mean that it is INSANE to keep “doing the same thing and expecting different results.” But where does that leave Christians who say “pray for them?” I guess they mean that some day “God will change their hearts?” Then we have the Buddhists who say the key to life is “acceptance” of how things are, and practice not adding any suffering to the world. I’m no expert in any religion, so I might have this a bit confused, but it seems it comes down to “change what we can and accept what we can’t and have the wisdom to know the difference.”
Oh, I surely don’t… but thank you so much for posting the “CONTRADICTION” in this quote! It has always bothered me, and now the practicing patience and “persistence” aspect has been explained! Yes!
DJ: You probably said it best, along with the author of this blog and description of “persistence:”
“HOW MANY TIMES DID BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FLY HIS KITE BEFORE HE GOT THE RESULT HE KNEW WOULD EVENTUALY HAPPEN ?”
Good point!
testingjeff : Thanks for the research. How did you determine the author of this quote was from:
- Sudden Death by Rita Mae Brown, Bantam Books, New York, 1983, p. 68.
“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
I think the quote is techincally accurate.
If you’re practicing something and improving as you go, you are technically NOT doing the same thing over and over again. You’re doing it slightly different and better each time. If you do it exactly the same each time - that’s not practicing, that IS insanity.
If you’re conducting an experiment, then several tries to determine a result’s probability counts as “doing ONE thing”. Repeating the experiment after a failed result without changing anything would be the “insanity”, in this case.
Persistence by its nature indicates that a person is doing something slightly different and improved with each repetition, or is relying on changing circumstances for further repetitions. to get different results. It’s not “doing the same thing over and over again”.
And as for praying, it’s a process over several days, weeks or years. It doesn’t count as “one good try” until the whole process is done. It builds up several things at once; it’s far from a dead, repetitive action.
@catherine todd : I entered variations of the quote into Google, looking for citations, which led me to http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rita_Mae_Brown
THANKS… I’ll have to read up on the wiki Rita Mae Brown site.
Adrian, I think you’ve got the “real” description down here. Thanks so much! This notion has been driving me crazy!
Now, with persistence and prayer, maybe I’ll have a fighting chance… 
smile!
I’ve just had this tattoo’s on my forearm, i love this quote!
If you are practicing a musical instrument or performing an experiment repeatedly, are you not expecting the same result? That is the reason why you repeat it - so that you attain your expected result. However, expecting something new and yet to do the same thing is insanity.
I practice music all the time and I DO “expect a different result,” as I do with practicing ballet, swimming, gymnastics, anything that requires skill learned by rote. Doing something over and over again the same way leads to an effortless in action, like swimming underwater or “moving in a dream.”
All this repetitive motion always led to “ease of use” and effortless, so when I applied the same principles to relationships, for example, and things DIDN’T CHANGE, and they didn’t “get better,” they got WORSE, I could never understand why. If it worked “in practice” with music and dance, why couldn’t it work “in love?”
All I know now is that there is a difference in what I do by myself, and what I try to do with others. When they have control over their situations (and mine) things don’t turn out as planned. Yet hanging in there, year after year, certainly led to “insanity” on my part.
Thanks for yet another comment to try and explain a difficult, if not impossible, concept to me. For now, I stick with “practice makes perfect” when it comes to things I can do - by myself - and “the way it begins is the way it ends” when it comes to relationships, professional or personal, and it involves more than just one!
Hope one day I can understand the difference. It’s incomprehensible to me right now.
Personally, I would look at this quote internally. You can’t control outside forces, and this quote is more about yourself than anything else.
If by practicing a skill, you hope to achieve the same result every time by repetition then you can achieve that goal. If you’re improving, then yes, you aren’t doing the same thing over and you can hopefully expect a better result every time.
I don’t think there’s a huge difference whether you’re talking about life, work or relationships. If you’re often expecting that performing the same actions will produce a different result, then you’re falling into a very human trap which is the exact reason why I still really like this quotation.
Give your methods a fair shot and do what you believe in, but sometimes be wise and change your methods. That can be very universally applicable.
I guess it boils down to if I keep changing my methods, hoping for a different result and they never change their methods, then we still get the same results! No good.
You wrote: ” If you’re often expecting that performing the same actions will produce a different result, then you’re falling into a very human trap which is the exact reason why I still really like this quotation.
Give your methods a fair shot and do what you believe in, but sometimes be wise and change your methods. That can be very universally applicable.”
“Why you really like this quotation…” OK, I will have to keep thinking on this! Thanks for the response.
Ha!
Excellent article. I’m glad I found it.
-jjj