I prefer the version I read in Buy Green Bananas: “Aim for the stars and you might reach the moon. Aim for the next block and you’ll get nowhere.” It makes sense in context, and it’s much more astrologically sound.
Well, I assume you’re in a rocket, so if you aim for the next block, you end up in a smoking hole. And have really pissed neighbors.
I dunno, my neighbors had some pretty tasty raspberry bushes when I was a kid (well, technically speaking, the berries they carried were tasty, not the bushes themselves). Pretty sure the moon just has rocks.
:rolleyes:
If you’re going to slander men, do it right.
Finds her, rapes her, and steals the sweater.
I can sort of see where that was going - “Success is not an option, [it’s a requirement]”, but it probably would have worked better as “Success is not optional”.
Much better is a line from an old Rush song, “Best I Can”:
“Got my sights on the stars! Won’t get that far, but I’ll try anyway.”
(Ironic in hindsight, as that line was recorded 34 years ago; the band is still going strong, and is the most successful prog rock act in history).
**“It’s a win-win situation” **
This expression drives me nuts. I lose respect for anyone who says it. All it means is that both sides of a confrontation have given up something. It would properly be called a “lose-lose situation”.
Just a way to end an argument while saving face. Something to fool the children into shutting up.
ghardester, I believe you’ve confused a *win-win situation *with a compromise.
I agree with Shot From Guns. A win-win situation is one where both sides come out ahead, but generally one of the sides hadn’t yet realized it.
Not so. The two instances of the word ‘learn’ can refer to different things. For example, if I want to learn how to speak French, it will help if I learn how to devise a good, practical study plan and schedule.
It’s up to you if you dislike this aphorism or regard it as stupid. Nontheless, I don’t believe that it is as pointless, stupid or tautologous as you seem to feel.
I agree with elementary and middle school classroom being the place where these idiotic shibboleths breed.
I always knew if I walked into a classroom with the “You have not failed until you’ve stopped trying” poster that it was going to be a long year. Or the kitten hanging on a branch with the caption “Hang in there!”
I definitely preferred the sign that one of my high school English teachers had in her classroom:
“ESCHEW OBFUSCATION.”
One person can make a difference.
Remember, Hitler was only one person.
Hrm? If I have clutter in my house that I want to get rid of, and someone else likes said clutter and will take it away, it’s a win-win situation. Who loses?
Maybe you’re thinking of “Let’s agree to disagree”?
One place I worked in had a Motivational Poster up on the wal of the break room Inspiration, I think it said. It had a set of light bulbs in sockets at the end of cablesAll of them were unlit, and they were touhing each other, forming one of those “Newton’s Cradle” devices. There was one more bulb on a cable, and it had evidently been pulled away from the rest of the pack. From the streaking, it apeared to be swinging toward the others at high speed. It was brightly lit.
I
I’m sure the message the poster-maker was trying to convey was that, when this lit bulb hit the r4est of the pack, they’d light up and start swinging away – the light and energy of one inspired bulb was going to light up the others and get them moving, too.
But, of course, the realist in me saw that that wasn’t gonna happen – when that bulb smacked into the others, they’d all break, there would be shattered glass everywhere, and the light would go out.
It was actually a pretty good DE-Motivational Poster – "Don’t go running into other bulbs that aren’t hurting you. You’ll just cause a lot of damage.
I stand by my original view. We reach an impass and are stuck. We must compromise, as Shot from Guns has said it well. So each side gives in a little. It’s a negotiation.
There is no ‘both sides win’. Both sides give in, and that is a different thing.
To say that both sides win is dishonest.
Quitters never win
and
Winners never quit
is how I became a drug addict.
One place I worked at had a poster wuth three meshing gears like that – only it was a photograph, which means that the photographer who set it up must have been aware that the gears couldn’t move.
I took the poster down and showed it to a higher-up at the company, pointing out that it was inappropriate as a logo for a high tech company that a.) does a lot of engineering; and b.) wants to give the impression that we built things that worked. But it had no effect – the poster was still up when I left.
Not to be pedantic, but … there are “win-win situations”. They exist.
However, if someone were to describe a compromise as a win-win situation, they might not be correct, as you have pointed out. So it would be foolish to consider a negotiated outcome from an impasse to be a “win-win” situation.
Nevertheless, win-win situations exit. So you losing all respect for someone the moment they utter this phrase is … premature.
Except that that’s not called a win-win situation. That’s a misuse of the term.