Insanity Is Repeating Stupid Sayings

Here’s something you may have heard. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.”

What a crock.

It’s been falsely attributed to Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, and I'd bet money they're all spinning in their graves. Because this saying is so untrue, so plainly absurd, I can hardly find words adequate to the task of saying so. If you could see me right now, you'd see a soundless, frustrated grimace of inarticulateness.

But don't worry, I'm recovering rapidly.

As usual, people's hearts are in the right place when they utter this advice, and I think they're trying to make a fair point - that is, stop doing things that don’t work for you. Do things that do work for you. These are concepts I can get behind.

Unfortunately, for many, many people, the concept of “what works” is all tangled up with right and wrong. When something doesn’t work, it’s wrong. And you’re wrong for doing it. You’re so wrong, in fact, you’re insane! And they get to be right by pointing it out to you.

But they aren't right, and neither is this stupid saying. (Yes, I'm 8, and it's stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! See? Articulation recovering rapidly.)

First of all, it’s just flat-out inaccurate. We are learning beings, and learning involves repetition. It’s how we’re wired, and it’s how we work stuff out. We explore by experimenting, over and over. Sometimes we adjust a little, but not always.

Second, most of us were raised by humans, and as humans raised by humans, we learned that human moods vary, and asking for a new bicycle one day does not yield the same result as asking for a new bicycle on another day. Don’t get me started on cookies.

Third, one of the most powerful psychological conditioning phenomena is intermittent reinforcement, which you know well if you’ve ever pulled a slot machine handle. The reason it works is because doing the same thing over and over again sometimes produces a different result. How cool is that!

Fourth, it flies in the face of the age-old lesson of persistence. How many publishers rejected Harry Potter? How many batches of fried chicken did Colonel Sanders have to make for potential investors? And how many producers did Stallone approach with Rocky?

Finally, not only is it very clearly not true, but it twists the truth in a particularly dark way. It’s mean-spirited. “Doing something over and over again and expecting different results” could just as easily be called the definition of hope. To call it insanity, especially to a person who is looking to you for guidance (listen up, 12-step sponsors), is cruel and crazymaking.

If you say it because you relate to it, I encourage you to get treatment for your control addiction and self-loathing, but in the meantime, stop saying it. I can’t emphasize this enough. Please stop.

If you ever find yourself in an advice-receiving position and someone says this to you, well... ask them how many times they’ve repeated the line, and what result they’re looking for, and whether they've ever gotten it.

Snarky, I know. But sometimes, maybe, snarky is appropriate.