The definition of "insanity" - eviltoast
    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You’re also in a meme community, commenting on a meme, so while technically correct, it’s not super relevant.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, Jeffrey Dahmer was universally considered insane and he didn’t “do the same thing over and over and expect different results”. He just killed and ate people over and over and expected them to taste good.

    • PapaStevesy@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Idk, if you’re doing the same thing after your training that you were doing before, you either didn’t need training or you weren’t successfully trained.

      It’s an idiom, it’s not meant to be a clinical diagnosis. Like, yeah if you’re psychiatrist says it to you qnd tries to have you institutionalized, that’s obviously a problem. But I highly doubt that’s ever happened, certainly not in the modern age.

      Ultimately, it’s actually the same exact idea as “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it,” but in less politically correct terms.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          For the training, I’d argue that you’re not trying to get different results.

          Each time, the result is minor growth in whatever your goal is, be it strength, muscle mass, or endurance, etc.

        • ThaNookLmao@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          think the meme has some grounds for truth. of course it was designed to be a dramatic speech for a scary character but it has some grounds to it: this may not be the truth but its how it feels. By doing the same thing over and over again and seeing no chance you go insane, and as such it feels like doing so is asking for insanity, thus the characters speech!

    • gun@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Not to mention it’s always attributed to Albert Einstein which is not something he said and not something he would ever have said. Doesn’t stop people from continuing to invoke this “definition of insanity” as if its a smart thing to say.

    • lorez@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If you’re getting different results it’s because you’re adjusting something. That’s training.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Actually when you create a hypothesis and test it and prove it out, it is meant to be 100% repeatable by anyone following the metgod. Otherwise your method or hypothesis is wrong.

        • TheActualDevil@sffa.community
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          1 year ago

          Right, but the reason you run the experiment repeatedly is to test the validity of the hypothesis. You’re looking for something different to happen. That’s the point behind rerunning the tests.

          • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Right, but if you find a difference you alter the method or hypothesis, to get repearbility. An insane person (not neccessarily crazy person, but one that doesn’t follow sane rationalizarion) will keep repeating exact same thing.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          But also if you keep running the compiler without changing any of the code hoping for the errors to be magically gone, you are insane. So there’s the same logic being applied to insanity in computer science

    • kadu@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not a meme, it comes from a thought experiment trying to disprove quantum mechanics. It’s often attributed to Einstein, though that’s very likely not true.

      EDIT: This is wrong.

        • kadu@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well, digging further it seems like we are both wrong.

          Rita Mae Brown’s quote is not the earliest example of it being used, so it’s certainly not the origin. Though the misattribution to Einstein was adapted into the quantum argument I knew about. Both are not the earliest mentions of the quote, and the exact origin is debated. The most likely scenario is that it originated in a Narcotics Anonymous setting.

            • kadu@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              What an overly aggressive reply. But sure, let’s play.

              Would you look at this, a 1981 Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet that contains the exact quote: “[…] Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”

              Hmm… 1981… But the book was released in 1983… But your previous comment so eloquently said I’m totally wrong, so you’ve just proven time machines exist! How cool! Einstein would be proud!