Warning this is an Opinion Piece.
In a conversation this week the quote Insanity is doing everything the same way and expecting a different outcome. Or some variant of that. Attributed to Einstein. As if attributing it to Einstein makes it somehow more credible, than attributing it to Dagwood Bumstead.
Well it turns out it is not a quote from dear olde Albert. It is also mis-attributed to Ben Franklin, Confucius, and a Chinese proverb.
The first printed record of this quote is in the 1981 Narcotics Anonymous approval version of their handbook. No other printed record is found.
Why is this Seemingly Trival Point Important
We toss around platitudes, quotes, and similar phrases in the weak and useless attempt to establish credibility of an idea by referencing some other work. Like quoting a 34 year old software report from NATO, when only mainframes and FORTRAN 77 were used, to show the software crisis and try to convince people it's the same today. Or use un-vetted, un-reviewed, charts and graphs from an opinion piece in popular techncial magazine as the basis of statistical analysis of self-selected data
Is it world shaking news? No. Is the balanced of the universe disrupted? Hardly.
But is shows a lack of mental discipline that leaks into the next level of thought process. It's always the little things that count, get those right and the big things follow. That is a quote from somewhere. But it also shows laziness of thought, use of platitudes in place of the hard work to solve nearly intractable problems, and all around disdain for working on those hard problems. It's a sign of our modern world - look for the fun stuff, the easy stuff, and the stuff we don't really want to be held accountable for if it goes wrong
I will use the Edwin Land quote though, that is properly attributed to him
Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
That doesn't sound like much fun, let's work on small, simple, and easy projects and tell everyone how those successful processes we developed can be scaled to the manifestly important and nearly impossible ones.
