[SEQ RERUN] Trying to Try

MinibearRex

Today's post, Trying to Try was originally published on 01 October 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

As a human, if you try to try something, you will put much less work into it than if you try something.

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).

This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Magnitude of His Own Folly, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, Trying to Try was originally published on 01 October 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

As a human, if you try to try something, you will put much less work into it than if you try something.

But what needs to be done? Maybe what needs to be done requires three times your life savings, and you must produce it or fail.

The whole post, I kept thinking, "But what's the difference? What's it actually look like?" And then I got to this line, and it crystallized. Brutal.