There are six Laws of Holes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a proverb about quitting, called the Law of Holes, that has its own Wikipedia page. During the 1980s in the United Kingdom it was used by the politician Denis Healey. The law is that (as shown above):

 

“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

 

That really was just the First Law of Holes. (But why is then implied rather than explicitly stated?) I looked around further and found that there are another five Laws of Holes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, the Second Law of Holes is to:

 

 “Remember that you are still in a hole”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, the Third Law of Holes is to:

 

“Get help to bring a ladder so you can climb out.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fourth Law of Holes is that:

 

“If you can’t get help, cut steps and climb out yourself.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The preventive Fifth Law of Holes is to:

 

 "Fill in the hole, so no one else can fall into it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the Sixth Law of Holes is: 

 

“If you can’t fill the hole, put warning signs around it.

 

There is a 2026 book by Lindsay Krouse titled The Case for Quitting: The surprising benefits of opting out. Her Chapter 9 is titled The Law of Holes. On page 148 she says that:

 

“Escalation of commitment can quickly lead us to collide head-on with what an economist once described to me as ‘the law of holes,’ which sounds obvious by often ignored: ‘If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.’ “

 

And on page 161 she continues:

 

“Quitting was the first step. Then she discovered the second Law of Holes (‘Remember, you are still in a hole.’).”

 

There is an article by Paul Synnott at LinkedIn Pulse on November 24, 2022 titled Don’t Always Rely on the Ladder! He says that:

 

“For me, there are only three ways out of this situation.

The first is to recognise that you are in over your head, put down the shovel and holler in the hope that someone might hear you and come to your rescue.

The second is to accept the hand of the person who has realised that you might be in a spot of bother, and has, of their own volition, reached down to pull you out.

And in the absence of the first two, the third is to use the ladder; you know, the one that we all pack away as a last resort, in readiness for a quick escape for when we do end up digging that hole just a little too deep.”

 

Another article by Sun Shine (at Medium) on June 23, 2017 is titled Investing and the five laws of holes. He says:

 

“The First Law of Holes (this is the only stated law of holes) – if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging…

 

The Second Law of Holes – If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging, come out of it, and then fill it in to keep it from becoming a hazard…

 

The Third Law of Holes – If you don’t know that you are in a hole, ask someone who isn’t covered with mud and standing in the shade…

 

The Fourth Law of Holes – If someone else, and especially when that someone appears smart and has been successful in the recent past, seems to be digging a hole, don’t try to jump in to give him company…

 

The Fifth Law of Holes – Trust your logic – ‘I must get out of the hole before I fall deeper’ – more than your ego – ‘How could I have been so blind to have gotten into this hole?’ ”

 

How old is the sentiment behind the First Law of Holes? There is an article by Garson O’Toole at the Linguist list on October 19, 2004 titled Proverb: When you’re in a hole, stop digging – On the dangers of digging (Joel Chandler Harris 1889). Joel Chandler Harris told the Uncle Remus stories about the trickster Br’er Rabbit.

 

My cartoons used modified images from OpenClipArt of a standing man, digging, and a ladder.

 

 

An inchoate Sheldon comic strip

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a Sheldon comic strip by Dave Kellett on October 23, 2026 with the following dialogue:

 

Arthur: ??? You ever hear of the word ‘inchoate’?

Sheldon: Inchoate? What’s an inchoate?

 

Arthur: Exactly! There’s no way ‘inchoate’ is a real word.

   It sounds like a rash from pond water.

 

Arthur: Or a line of kelp-based organic lozenges.

   Or a distinctly French type of existential dread.

   Or an artisanal beverage made from dried chia seeds.

 

Arthur: Anyway, I refuse to look up the definition.

   Who has the time, with all the taxes we need to inchoate.

Sheldon: I inchoated an ENTIRE bean-and-cheese burrito once.

 

What does inchoate really mean? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says:

 

Inchoate (adjective):

“being only partly in existence or operation: incipient

  especially: imperfectly formed or formulated: formless, incoherent.”

 

And, similarly, the Oxford English Dictionary says:

 

Inchoate (adjective):

“Just begun, incipient; in an initial or early stage; hence elementary, imperfect, undeveloped, immature.”

 

 

A useful 2022 book titled Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful 2022 book by Annie Duke titled Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. You might quit by hanging up your boxing gloves. On page xxiv of the Prologue (shown in the Amazon sample) she describes the book’s organization as follows:

 

“The aim of this book is to create a better understanding of those forces that work against good choices about what and when to quit and the circumstances in which we are reluctant to walk away, and to help all of us view quitting more positively so we can improve our decision-making. I’ve organized this material into four sections, with three interludes.

 

Section I will make the case for quitting as a decision skill worth developing. Chapter 1 covers why quitting is our best tool for making decisions under uncertainty, because it allows us to change course after new information is revealed. I’ll also examine how the very uncertainty that makes the option to quit so valuable can make it hard to quit at all, Chapter 2 explores why, when you quit on time, it usually feels like you quit too early. Quitting is ultimately a forecasting problem, meaning that when to quit is a problem of whether the future looks dirs., not whether the present is dire. And a rosy present is a heard thing to walk away from. Chapter 3 will dive into the science of quitting, showcasing the evidence that we all tend to poorly calibrate our grit/quit decisions: In particular, when the world gives us bad news we tend to persevere too long, but when we get good news, we tend to quit too soon.

 

In Section II, I cover specifically how your decision to quit is affected by whether you are winning or losing (‘in the losses’). Chapter 4 introduces the concept of escalation of commitment, where we respond to bad news by increasing our commitment to a losing course of action. Chapter 5 describes why sunk costs make it so hard to walk away. I’ll dive deep into the fear of waste and how the money, time, effort, or other resources we have invested in a course of action negatively impact decisions about whether to move forward. Chapter 6 offers up strategies to improve decisions about when to quit, including the importance of tacking the hardest part of a project first, as well as ways to develop benchmarks, criteria, and signals, called kill criteria, that will help ensure you quit sooner when persisting is no longer in your best interest.

 

In Section III, I’ll get deeper into the cognitive biases that interfere with quitting. Chapter 7 explores how ownership, both of things and ideas, makes it difficult to change course, as well as the powerful pull of the status quo. I’ll cover the dual effects of how the fear of uncertainty and the fear of losing associated with a changing course prevent us from charting a new path. Chapter 8 looks at how our identity – and our desire for a consistent identity – becomes an impediment to quitting, and can cause us to escalate commitment to disastrous choices. Chapter 9 offers an additional strategy for mitigating the cognitive biases that make walking away so hard; a quitting coach, or someone who can see our situation from the outside and help us to change course when the time is right.

 

In Section IV, I examine the problem of opportunity cost. Whenever we commit to a course of action, by default we are committing to not pursuing other things. How do we know when it’s time to quit one choice in favor of another, better one? Chapter 10 highlights the lessons we learn when we’re forced to quit, and how to apply those lessons preemptively. Chapter 11 looks at the downside of goals, arguing that, although goals are a motivating force, they can also motivate you to stick to things that are no longer worthwhile. The pass-fail nature of goals is at odds with an unfixed and flexible world, and the desire to meet a goal can keep us from seeing other paths and opportunities available to us. I’ll also argue for why every goal needs caveats, as well as progress markers along the way.

 

I hope that as a result of reading this book, you will learn to recognize why quitting should be celebrated and how it can become a skill you can develop and use to enrich your life, encouraging you to value optionality, execute better on the things you stick with, and continue exploring so you can flexibly change with (or in advance of) a changing world.

 

To be clear, there are lots of hard things that are absolutely worth sticking to, and resilience and grit are going to help you do that. Success is not achieved by quitting things just because they are hard. But success is also not achieved by sticking to hard things that are not worthwhile.

 

The trick is figuring out when to persevere and when to walk away. This book will develop the tools to do that.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6 is titled Monkeys and Pedestals. On page 111 she explains:

 

“Imagine that you’re trying to train a monkey to juggle flaming swords while standing on a pedestal in a public park. If you can achieve such an impressive spectacle, you’ve got a moneymaking act on your hands.

 

Teller recognizes that there are two pieces to becoming successful at this endeavor: training the monkey and building the pedestal. One piece of the puzzle presents a a possibly intractable obstacle in the way of success. And the other is building the pedestal. People have been building pedestals since ancient Greece and probably before. Over two-plus millenia, pedestals have been thoroughly figured out. You can buy one at a furniture store or a hardware store, or turn a milk crate upside down.

 

The bottleneck, the hard thing, is training a monkey to juggle flaming torches.

 

The point of this mental model is to remind you that there is no point building the pedestal if you can’t train the monkey.

 

In other words, you ought to tackle the hardest part of the problem first.”

 

The boxing gloves, monkey, and pedestal all were adapted from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

A venue is an indefinite place rather than a thing, so it is a bad name for a sport-utility-vehicle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few days ago I stopped behind a Hyundai Venue at a traffic light. That is a subcompact, crossover, sport-utility-vehicle (SUV). According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a venue is:

 

“a place where events of a specific type are held.”

 

Because a venue is an indefinite place rather than a thing it is a bad name for a vehicle. Some other Hyundai names at least are for cities, definite places. A Hyundai Santa Cruz is a compact pickup truck. And a Hyundai Santa Fe is a crossover SUV. A Hyundai Tucson is a compact, crossover SUV. And a Toyota Tacoma is a pickup truck.

 

Back on July 13, 2021 I blogged about Improper plural names for single motor vehicles, particularly the Nissan Armada – a full-size SUV.

 

The image of a 2022 Hyundai Venue came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

The Laws of Connection is an interesting 2024 book by David Robson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via interlibrary loan, from the Meridian Public Library, I got an interesting 2024 book by David Robson titled The Laws of Connection: The scientific secrets of building a strong social network. There is a preview at Google Books. His Parts, Chapters, and starting pages are:

 

Introduction  1

 

Part 1 – Building Connections

 

Chapter 1: The Social Cure  11

Chapter 2: How We Connect  30

Chapter 3: The Personality Myth  51

Chapter 4: Overcoming Egocentric Thinking  70

Chapter 5: The Art of Conversation  90

Chapter 6: Expressing Appreciation

 

Part 2 – Maintaining Connections

Chapter 7: Truth, Lies and Secrets 131

Chapter 8: Avoiding Envy and Enjoying Confelicity  151

Chapter 9: Asking for Help  168

Chapter 10: Healing Bad Feelings  186

Chapter 11: Constructive Disagreement  205

Chapter 12: Finding Forgiveness 224

 

Conclusion: The Thirteenth Law of Connection  243

 

Further Reading  249

Glossary  251

Acknowledgements 257

Credits  259

Notes  261

Index  301

 

On October 10, 2024 Toby Sinclair has a post titled The Laws of Connection: book summary.

 

Pages 244 and 245 of David’s book provide a summary of his twelve laws (and a thirteenth):

 

“1] Be consistent in your treatment of others. Avoid becoming as stressful frenemy.

 

2] Create a mutual understanding with the people you meet. Ignore superficial similarities and instead focus on your internal world, and the peculiar ways that your thoughts and feelings coincide.

 

3] Trust that others, on average, will like you as much as you like them, and be prepared to practise your social skills to build your social confidence.

 

4] Check your assumptions; engage in ‘perspective-getting’ rather than ‘perspective-taking’ to avoid egocentric thinking and misunderstandings.

 

5] In conversation, demonstrate active attention, engage in self-disclosure, and avoid the novelty penalty, to build mutual understanding and contribute to the merging of our minds.

 

6] Praise people generously, but be highly specific in your words of appreciation.

 

7] Be open about your vulnerabilities, and value honesty over kindness (but practice both, if possible).

 

8] Do not fear envy. Disclose your successes but be accurate in your statements and avoid comparing yourself to others. Enjoy ‘confelicity.’

 

9] Ask for help when you need it, in the expectation that your pleas for support can build a stronger long-term bond.

 

10] Offer emotional support to those in need, but do not force it upon them. Validate their feelings while providing an alternative prespective on their problems.

 

11] Be civil and curious in disagreements; show interest in the other side’s viewpoint; share personal experiences; and translate your opinions into their moral language.

 

12] For your wellbeing, choose forgiveness over spite. Look at the big picture in arguments. Ensure your apologies define the offence, take responsibility for your actions, and express regret. Have faith that people can change for the better.

 

To these, I would like to add one final law:

 

13] Reach out to the people who are missing in your life. Let them know that they are still a part of your thoughts.”

 

The triangular gird was adapted from here at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Slipping when quoting from a poem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a post about the poem Lepanto written by G. K. Chesterton made by Dr. John Livingston at the Gem State Patriot News blog on October 11, 2026 titled What Makes A Civilization Worth Defending. You can find the full text of that poem here at the Poetry Foundation. John incorrectly says that:

 

“Chesterton gives that conviction memorable expression:

‘It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the labour worth.’ ”

 

But that line instead actually is:

 

‘It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,’

 

Labour is not the same as a wager, so John didn’t even make a proper paraphrase. His other two quotes from that poem were correct. And the last sentence of John’s post is that (with labor rather than labour):

 

“We can decide whether the cause is worth our labor—and whether we will do our part.” 

 

I have found Dr. Livingston to be notoriously poor at editing quotes. On October 22, 2024 I discussed another example in a post titled How not to write a blog post (or speech) using a quotation.

 

The slipping warning sign was adapted from here at OpenClipArt.  

 

 

Bad advice from a cookbook on how to clean stainless steel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been skimming through a 2025 cookbook by David Nayfeld titled Dad, What’s for Dinner? Lifesaving recipes to avoid meltdowns, have fun in the kitchen, and keep your kids well fed. In the back, starting on page 288, there is a section on Resources. On page 299 under the title BAR KEEPERS FRIEND, BRILLO PAD, AND A GOOD BRUSH he says that:

 

“A Brillo pad – a soap-impregnated scouring pad – is clutch for stubborn fond and keeping your stainless steel spotless.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, as shown above, a Brillo pad is made from ordinary steel wool. It is a bad choice for cleaning stainless steel. You should instead either use stainless steel wool, or something nonmetallic. Why? Back on January 13, 2010 in a post titled How thin is ”extremely thin”? I blogged about that, and said: 

 

 "How do stainless steels work? They are reactive metals – iron alloys containing at least 11% chromium. The surface of a stainless steel reacts with oxygen to form an extremely thin, self-healing, chromium-rich passive film which stops further corrosion. This process is called passivation, and the film is just 10 to 100 atoms thick..."

 

“Just rubbing the surface with a steel wire brush or steel wool can embed enough free iron to interfere with passivation.”

 

There is a 3-page pdf article from the British Stainless Steel Association on March 12, 2001 titled Care and Maintenance of Stainless Steel which discusses this in Note #7,

 

“Rust marks or staining on stainless steels is unlikely to be the result of corrosion to the stainless steel itself (similar marks may also be found on porcelain and plastic sinks). These marks are likely to result from small particles of ‘ordinary’ (non-stainless) steel from wire wool or scouring pads becoming attached or embedded in the surface.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, clean nonmetallic pads like green or blue Scotch Brite could also be used.

 

Images of a colander pot and Brillo pads came from Wikimedia Commons.