Two Guidelines
I first encountered these two, can’t recall where. Or how. But over the years, they kept showing up, and from time to time, I use them in consultations as they are wonderfully evocative and more important, illustrative.
Two Guidelines
While much bantered about, the source is pretty unquestionable, the cowboy-poet-performer from Oklahoma, Will Rogers (Scorpio).
“There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
(Footnote results.)
I have at least one book in my library with that quote in it. Doesn’t prove anything, but that’s a source, and it helps to make sure I don’t claim it’s original.
The quote, its attribution, and more important? The observations? That stands and one could easily see, that stands on its own. The division is more binary and less arbitrary.
The homespun nature of the observation and its easy-going delivery, can easily hear with a twang in the accent, yet speaking to that larger audience.
I do have one group of friends, and the question, along the lines of the observation?
“Does it hurt yet?”
“There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
— Will Rogers
Two Guidelines
There’s a companion guideline , all about arguing with stubborn people.
“The problem with wrestling with a pig in slop? Sooner or later, you figure out you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
There are several versions, and everyone from the Buddha to Mark Twain, Shakespeare, G.K. Chesterton, G.B. Shaw, and Will Rogers gets credit for the expression. Again, a quick search reveals no one can claim the original (credible research).
For me, I encountered this expression decades back, but it kept showing up in the last few years, especially in respect to political discourse.
There comes a time when arguing with a person isn’t worth it — no amount of logic, common sense, or in-your-face evidence will win the argument. Personally, I prefer the dirtier version:
“The problem with arguing with a pig in shit is you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
I have to remember that.
Two Guidelines
There are two simple takeaway points.
- Some people just have to “pee on the electric fence” as it were to learn what does, or doesn’t work. There’s a new version, the scientific method, FAFO.
- Arguing with someone set in a particular pattern is useless.
Maybe I have these reversed, but they’ve stood up over the intervening years as useful aphorisms.
- “The problem with wrestling with a pig in slop? Sooner or later, you figure out you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
- “There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
Two Guidelines
Shorthand answers to larger and more difficult questions.
Nature’s Treasures Bathroom Sign
the Portable Mercury Retrograde
