I prefer the Bene Gesserit take on trying:
Paul: They tried and failed?
RM Mohiam: They tried and died.
There’s incentive for you.
so, did Yoda try to defeat the Emperor or what, then, exactly?
Personally, I always interpreted it not as a statement meant to be taken literally, but as a bit of psychological manipulation designed to help Force control; same with “size matters not”. Because Force control is mental, if you doubt you will succeed at something, there is the risk that your doubt will make you fail; and your failure will in turn make it harder for you to succeed the next time you try. Empty your mind of doubt, and the Force will not be restrained by your preconceptions of what it can do.
Of course, this mindset may not exactly be the best one to get into the habit of indulging in.
Exactly. Yoda was trying to get Luke into the right mindset where he could succeed. The accuracy of the explanation is less important than whether it does the job it needed to do.
Come on guys, you’re looking too deeply at it. If Luke approached the problem knowing that he’d succeed, he would have.
Luke: I don’t believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.
It’s all about the attitude that Luke had when approaching the problem. He was pessimistic, obviously setting himself up for failure when he tried to lift the ship out. Yoda scolded him for this approach with the line that’s being debated.
When it comes to the Force, I don’t think there is trying involved. It’s like in The Matrix. It’s not about how much effort you put into doing something, it’s all about your understanding of the way things work. When people who are plugged into the Matrix finally start to truly comprehend that nothing in that world really exists and that it’s all a creation within their minds, they realize that the only limits are the limits imposed by their own minds. I think that’s very similar to how things work with the Force and I believe that’s what Yoda’s trying to teach Luke.
It’s not the same as you trying to lift a heavy weight and me telling you “Do or do not, there is no try” because the limitations in that instance are physical. With the Force it’s all mental.
Also:
Fuck midichlorians.
My guitar teacher told me something similar. He said after a couple of lessons, “Now that you can pick up your guitar and string together 3 chords you are playing. So don’t think that you are learning to play guitar, you are improving from now on. And the more you play the more you will improve.”
Right. Remember the Star Wars world isn’t like our world. It’s a world where telekinesis is real and you can accomplish things by connecting with a pervasive cosmic force. It’s not a leap to say that tapping into that force requires complete confidence in your mental abilities. Even simply acknowledging the possibility of failure might disconnect you from the force.
Touch-typing works on the same principle.
Yep. There are a few Darwin award winners that can attest to this.