Via Negativa (Week 12 of Wisdom)

Chess grand masters win because they don’t make a mistake. Poker players win because they don’t lose their stack. Investors get rich because they don’t go broke when others do. Athletes become stars because they don’t get injured. 

It is wiser to follow advice that warns you of what not to do rather than tells you what to do. A prescription or a “how to” book is telling you one way of doing something. It is very likely that this one way doesn’t work.

2 thoughts on “Via Negativa (Week 12 of Wisdom)”

  1. Reminds me in a way of how Western medicine commences a diagnosis – by a process of eliminating, one-by-one, the worst case possibilities.

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"A gilded No is more satisfactory than a dry yes" - Gracian