"Reminds me of the old saying 'Impatience is not a virtue'." "Isn't
that…
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lispwizard · 2026-05-10 14:43

"Reminds me of the old saying 'Impatience is not a virtue'.""Isn't
that 'Patience is a virtue'?""Nah, that makes it sound like patience
is an optional trait to be striven for and is neutral on impatience.
Impatience is actively harmful, as anyone who has tried to quickly
untangle hair (or a ball of wires) knows full well.""But what about
the Gordian knot?""Did he have useful ropes afterward or just trash?
It was a speed/cost tradeoff.  If the speed is vital, e.g. to save the
life of a man being dragged off the boat by an anchor rope, the cost
is obviously worth it, but in my experience going for speed over cost
is overwhelmingly often NOT worth it and, usually causes other
problems that increase the total time beyond that of the careful
approach, so you don't even get the speed.""Ah, 'slow and steady wins
the race'.""Exactly."