If all you have is a hammer...

[DavidCC]

"If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail"

This has been attrbuted to Ed Parker but in fact it was Abraham Maslow who first coined this phrase.

The most interesting take on this IMHO compares language to the hammer, and the formulation of ideas as the "nail". basically, since our only tool for thought is language, we can only develop ideas that can be exrpressed in words. my response to that is

:mst:

 

[tshadowchaser]

I tend to develop ideas as images at times The words are not needed because the image is clear enough.
I am not sure hat I even like the idea of usein a "hammer" th pound my problems. I think the idea of saying " if all you have is clay the problem can be molded into the correct solution"

 

[wee_blondie]

Sounds like an advert for cross training to me.

My instructor is full of little pearls of wisdom - personal favourites include:

"You do not rise to the occasion - you sink to the level of your training"
"Pain is simply weakness leaving the body"
and...
"Sweat is the lubricant of success"

The guy is a born philosopher - just wish I could remember more!

 

[Flatlander]

The most interesting take on this IMHO compares language to the hammer, and the formulation of ideas as the "nail". basically, since our only tool for thought is language, we can only develop ideas that can be exrpressed in words. my response to that is

:mst:

Not necessarily - painters and sculptors and performance artists express their ideas through their respective crafts. Language, however, is our most precise method of communicating our ideas.

 

[FearlessFreep]

My instructor is full of little pearls of wisdom - personal favourites include:
..

The guy is a born philosopher - just wish I could remember more!

I knew a guy who used to say "Pain is a great teacher".

Unfotunately, he was my boss...

 

[xMarishltenx]

"Pain is a great teacher" are also the ords of my own sensei, as well as: "the only ego you have to beat here is your own".

I don't really like using analogies like the hammer one. They simplify everything, and analogies like that are not accurate when it coems to real life, they just SEEM to be.