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About this quote

What does it mean?
Tragedy occurs when rigidity prevents adaptation leading to catastrophic failure.
In plain terms
Failing to bend under pressure causes things to break.
What can you take from it?
Flexibility prevents disaster in tough times.

Where it applies

  • leadership
  • stress management
  • system design

Putting it to work

  • learn to adapt
  • avoid rigid thinking

Questions to consider

  • When should you stand firm versus bend?
  • Is resilience always better than surrender?

Another view

Sometimes breaking is necessary to stop larger harm.

More from Ludwig Wittgenstein

  1. What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.

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  2. You must always be puzzled by mental illness. The thing I would dread most, if I became mentally ill, would be your adopting a common sense attitude; that you …

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  3. There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.

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