"The height of the problem is at its peak"

Brilliant or Redundant?

My son and I are trying to settle a bet…

thanks!

Maybe I am missing something but I say neither.

I don’t see where redundancy comes in. I am guessing the dispute concerns “height” and “peak”. However, I don’t see how that has to do with anything. If I have a chart that show famine deaths in Africa year by year, there will be various bars of different height by year and one that is the highest called the peak. OTOH, I don’t see how the statement is brilliant either.

I have a feeling that I am missing something.

It’s a repetitive and redundant tautological redundancy which repeats itself in such a way that might be described as a tautology.

Also, since the subject and object are equivalent, the statement itself actually contains no information…

…it’s possible that context might make it a valid statement - for example if the unspecified problem was litter on a ski-hill.

True, it’s almost like saying “the top of the problem is at its top.” But if you’re talking about an infestation of tree-destroying beetles eating a tree, and most of the devastation was occuring at the highest branches, then it would work.

Yes, thank you…

I’m trying to convince my son that, while it sounds high and almighty, you can’t really glean any practical wisdom from it.

But if anyone else can see any practical use to any kind of situation…

Badly composed. If there’s rom for serious readers to misunderstand, it should be re-written with an emphasis on clarity. “In the peak year of [this phenomenon], it reached a total of x units, but has since fallen to y…” or “The height of the mountain, measured from its peak to sea level, is x.”

Sailboat

*room