The definition of insanity
A quote that is often attributed to Ben Franklin goes something like this: “The definition of insanity is doing something over and over and expecting different results.”
Ben Franklin? Really? It’s kind of awkwardly phrased for a writer like him. The definition of insanity? Wow. Someone call the DSM committee.
And the phrase is pretty current. How sad. How cliche. And how inane.
Insanity can be many things, but expecting different results after doing the same action twice is not one of them. For instance, is it insane to keep asking your partner or roommate to pick up their socks when they forget? (Not if they’re willing to try to remember, and they just need to be reminded.) Is it insane to change an option in a program a second time, when the first time it didn’t seem to take effect? (No, programs are buggy and people make mistakes navigating through menus.)
Usually, people use it to condemn those who seem to be unwilling to pay attention to history and learn from it. There are so many better phrases to use for this. Please, please don’t use this one.
October 28th, 2006 at 15:42
I don’t know why I’m bothering to address this, but I am attempting to find the source of this admittedly inexact quote. What’s strange to me is how many people try to deconstruct it to prove its inaccuracy. Inevitably, the fail, as you do, to do this in a logical manner. The saying, which is best stated as ‘One definition of insanity is the exact and persistant repetition of an action with the expectation of eliciting a different result’. This is a fair statement. It does not mean just repeating something a couple of times, as you alluded to in your reference to changing program options. It does not mean asking a roommate to pick up their socks twice, then giving up. It can certainly mean, though, that if your roommate does not respond after you have asked in the same way for 20 or 30 times, if you do not change tactics, you are simply masochistic. This may not be insane, but it does not make you a poster boy for mental health week. If you stick your hand into a flame and it burns, do you continue to do so for 30 or 40 times, expecting that it will, at some point, NOT burn? I think the statement stands up, and I will not tell you again.
November 4th, 2006 at 9:27
“What’s strange to me is how many people try to deconstruct it to prove its inaccuracy.”
What’s strange to me is that these “many people” don’t show up in a google search for the phrase. Before I wrote this post I spent some time looking up the phrase and couldn’t find anything of the sort.
“The saying, which is best stated as”
That’s not the saying, that’s your attempt at formulating the saying for maximum charitability, which is just plain odd. My criticism applies to the saying as it is said. I’ve never seen it phrased anywhere nearly as carefully as you put it, and futhermore, it’s not consistently used in situations where the repetition is long and persistent.
“This may not be insane, but it does not make you a poster boy for mental health week.”
Which still leaves the saying being inaccurate, and futhermore woefully underdefined. What about all the myriad other things that can constitute insanity? Claiming that something is a definition is to claim that it approximates completeness. If the saying were “Insanity is …” instead of “The definition of insanity is”, then it would be marginally better. Still trite and inartful, though.
The saying is silly on so many levels, and your defense of it is quite odd in its adamancy (”I don’t know why I’m bothering”, “I will not tell you again”, “they fail, as you do, to do this in a logical manner”). What an odd comment.