Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.”
I posit that I do the same things over and over again when beginning the game, Heroes Of Might And Magic, never performing insanity since my repetitions are being entered into a random game generator which in turn changes the results of my repeated inputs, ie. I am doing the exact same thing over and over but getting different results. Einstein’s definition of insanity is untrue in my example and may continue to be untrue in life if there exists an element of random “life or reality” generation which explains events that defy our expectations again nullifying Einstein’s definition of insanity in the larger scheme of things.
Doing what things over and over again, given what particular contexts?
For me, here, however, this certainly seems applicable in regard to engaging the Kids, the fulminating fanatics and the objectivists over and over and over again…and expecting different results. By now, I’d pretty much have to be insane to expect that. At least in regard to discussions and debates that revolve around this particular philosophical question: How ought one to live?
With respect to, say, our moral and political value judgments.
As for this example…
…if you say so. Never really been into those kinds of game realities myself.
Fishing works sort of like your game.
You put the hook in the water over and over again, you may not catch anything for hours or even days, all the while thinking: eventually I’ll get a different result.
Dating can work like that too, so can phishing.
Salesman can go through dozens, sometimes hundreds of people before they make a sale, but if they stand to make a huge profit, like from selling a house or expensive car, it may still be worth it.
Some JWs and Mormons will knock on dozens or hundreds of doors to ‘save’ one soul.
In all these examples, you’re not doing the exact same thing every time, like you said there’s no such thing anyway, but you often have no reason to believe the next time will be any different, for all intents and purposes it looks the same to you, but you do it anyway expecting a positive result sooner or later.
“If the greatest genius of our time understands that doing the same old things is insane - conservatives must be insane. We need to get rid of them (besides we feel so much better about ourselves for saying it)”.
In all these examples, your behavior may be essentially the same, it may be solely the circumstances that essentially change, altho their essential difference may not be apparent.
That’s why I like the idea of random generation which may produce unseen differences/affects that may seem supernatural or magical to us when our repeated actions produce impossible or illogical outcomes.