WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.860 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I am your host. 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:04.280 And today we're going to do something a little 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:06.719 different. Usually we're tearing apart a specific 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:09.439 business strategy or maybe looking at some new 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:11.800 piece of tech that's going to change how we work. 00:00:12.019 --> 00:00:16.440 But today we are looking at language, specifically 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:20.059 an idiom. Right. And I'm here to walk us through 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:22.039 the research on this. It's a phrase I guarantee 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:25.000 everyone listening has used or, you know, at 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.320 least heard in a boardroom probably a dozen times 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:29.600 in the last year alone. Oh, absolutely. It is 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:31.719 the ultimate corporate warning label. The phrase 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:33.759 is, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:36.740 And I want to start by acknowledging something 00:00:36.740 --> 00:00:39.000 that we usually ignore because it's such a cliche. 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:41.840 If you actually stop and visualize that image. 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:44.119 Horrifying. Seriously, if you strip away the 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:46.200 familiarity, you have a visual of someone tossing 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:49.609 a basin of wastewater out a window. There goes 00:00:49.609 --> 00:00:51.929 the infant. It's a total disaster. It really 00:00:51.929 --> 00:00:54.189 is. And that violence is actually crucial to 00:00:54.189 --> 00:00:56.609 why it works. It's not a polite suggestion. It's 00:00:56.609 --> 00:00:58.990 a shock tactic. It's designed to wake you up. 00:00:59.149 --> 00:01:01.829 So here is the mission for today's Deep Dives. 00:01:02.210 --> 00:01:04.650 We have a stack of notes on the etymology and 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:07.290 the historical usage of this phrase. We are going 00:01:07.290 --> 00:01:10.329 to trace this back 500 years. We're going to 00:01:10.329 --> 00:01:13.769 look at how it jumped from German satire to English 00:01:13.769 --> 00:01:16.439 political discourse on slavery. But I don't just 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:19.500 want a history lesson. Right. You want the so 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:21.980 what? Like, why does this specific arrangement 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:24.459 of words stick with us for centuries? Exactly. 00:01:24.969 --> 00:01:27.109 I want to understand what this idiom actually 00:01:27.109 --> 00:01:29.629 teaches us about decision making. Because the 00:01:29.629 --> 00:01:31.689 sources suggest this isn't just about being clumsy. 00:01:31.930 --> 00:01:34.450 It's about a very specific cognitive failure 00:01:34.450 --> 00:01:37.170 that happens to smart people. It is. And to understand 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:38.989 that failure, we really have to start with the 00:01:38.989 --> 00:01:40.909 foundational definition provided in the source 00:01:40.909 --> 00:01:43.390 material. It categorizes this strictly as an 00:01:43.390 --> 00:01:45.689 avoidable error. An avoidable error. I mean, 00:01:45.689 --> 00:01:48.319 avoidable. implies intent or at least the capacity 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:50.540 for control, right? You didn't have to do it. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:54.420 Precisely. It's defined as an error where something 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:57.799 of value, the essential, is eliminated while 00:01:57.799 --> 00:01:59.900 trying to get rid of something unwanted, the 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:02.640 superfluous. But there is a second part to that 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:04.500 definition in the research that I found really 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:08.580 fascinating. It attributes this error to excessive 00:02:08.580 --> 00:02:12.580 zeal. Excessive zeal. That is such a specific 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:15.870 diagnostic. Sounds almost medical. It changes 00:02:15.870 --> 00:02:17.889 the whole complexion of the mistake, doesn't 00:02:17.889 --> 00:02:19.990 it? It implies you aren't being lazy, you aren't 00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:22.069 being malicious, you are being too enthusiastic. 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:24.490 Right, like you're just... You are so eager to 00:02:24.490 --> 00:02:26.530 fix the problem, to clean the house, cut the 00:02:26.530 --> 00:02:29.210 budget, reorganize the apartment, that your momentum 00:02:29.210 --> 00:02:31.650 carries you right off the cliff. That resonates 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:33.849 so much. It's the manager who comes in to fix 00:02:33.849 --> 00:02:36.449 a team culture and ends up firing the high performers 00:02:36.449 --> 00:02:38.990 because they, you know, push back on the new 00:02:38.990 --> 00:02:41.689 rules. That is a classic baby out with the bathwater 00:02:41.689 --> 00:02:44.460 scenario. You're so... focused on the dirty water, 00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:47.039 the bad culture, the old way of doing things, 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:49.860 that you purge the value along with it. So we 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:52.819 have this framework, avoidable error caused by 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:56.319 excessive zeal. But this didn't start in a modern 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:58.680 management textbook. I was actually surprised 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:00.680 by the origin story here. This isn't originally 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:03.259 English. No, not at all. If you want the source 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:05.060 code for this one, you really have to go to Germany. 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:08.099 The idiom derives from the German proverb, das 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:11.319 Kind mit dem Bad ausschütten. My German is non 00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:13.060 -existent, but the translation notes say that 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:15.319 means way. Pouring the child out with the bath. 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:18.199 And we can date this with incredible precision. 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:20.860 The earliest recorded instance appears in the 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:24.819 year 1512. 1512. So we are talking about a world 00:03:24.819 --> 00:03:26.560 that is barely out of the Middle Ages. This is 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:29.479 pre -Shakespeare. Right. And the context is really 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:31.539 telling. It appeared in a work by Thomas Merner. 00:03:32.110 --> 00:03:34.770 The book was called Narn Beshwaring. Which translates 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:37.069 to? Appeal to fools. Appeal to fools. Okay, I 00:03:37.069 --> 00:03:39.370 love that. So the very first time this concept 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:41.789 enters the written record, it's not in a medical 00:03:41.789 --> 00:03:44.949 text or a parenting guide. It's in a satire about 00:03:44.949 --> 00:03:48.849 idiots. Exactly. Murner included a woodcut illustration 00:03:48.849 --> 00:03:51.810 in the text. And it is blunt. It literally depicts 00:03:51.810 --> 00:03:54.889 a woman tossing a baby out along with the wastewater. 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:58.400 But because it's in appeal to fools, we know 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:00.699 exactly how Murner viewed this. This wasn't a 00:04:00.699 --> 00:04:03.259 tragedy of circumstance. It was an act of stupidity. 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:05.319 It's a failure of discrimination. That's the 00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:08.599 key word, discrimination. The fool is the person 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:10.659 who cannot distinguish between the waste and 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:13.840 the treasure. The fool treats the entire contents 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:18.040 of the tub as one object, tub contents, and just 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:20.839 dumps it. So the wise person sees water and baby 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:24.480 as two separate entities sharing a space. The 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.959 fool just sees stuff to get rid of. Exactly. 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:29.740 And the fool acts with that excessive zeal we 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:31.939 talked about. Just get it out of here. Now, usually 00:04:31.939 --> 00:04:34.220 these folks sayings stay in the realm of peasants 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:36.579 and woodcuts. You know, a stitch in time saves 00:04:36.579 --> 00:04:38.519 nine, that sort of thing. But what's interesting 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:41.019 about this specific phrase is that it didn't 00:04:41.019 --> 00:04:43.879 stay there. It graduated. It really did. It moved 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:46.660 from folk wisdom to high intellectual theory 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:50.279 very quickly. The source material lists a who's 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:53.240 who of German intellectual history who used this 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:55.740 phrase as a core part of their arguments. Give 00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:57.360 us the list. Who are we talking about? We are 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.879 talking about Martin Luther, the reformer. Johannes 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:03.899 Kepler, the astronomer who essentially rewrote 00:05:03.899 --> 00:05:07.250 the laws of planetary motion. Johann Wolfgang 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:09.930 von Goethe, the literary giant, and Otto von 00:05:09.930 --> 00:05:12.569 Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor who unified Germany. 00:05:12.730 --> 00:05:14.689 That is a staggering lineup. You have religion, 00:05:14.949 --> 00:05:18.009 science, literature, and statecraft. And later 00:05:18.009 --> 00:05:20.910 you have novelists like Thomas Mann and Gunther 00:05:20.910 --> 00:05:23.189 Grass. But looking at that first group, Luther, 00:05:23.370 --> 00:05:26.689 Kepler, Bismarck, do you see the pattern? Well... 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:28.279 They're all disruptors. They change the world. 00:05:28.420 --> 00:05:30.839 They are system level disruptors. And that's 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:33.399 why this specific metaphor became so valuable 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:36.220 to them. Think about Martin Luther. OK, so let's 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:38.920 unpack Luther. He is trying to reform the church 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.060 in the 1500s. Right. And let's be honest, the 00:05:41.060 --> 00:05:43.259 church in the 1500s, it had plenty of dirty water, 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:45.819 corruption, selling of indulgences, political 00:05:45.819 --> 00:05:48.420 maneuvering. Luther's goal is to throw that water 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:51.279 out. He wants to clean the house. But, and this 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:53.600 is the terrifying part for him, he has to do 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:55.600 it without destroying the Christian faith itself. 00:05:56.139 --> 00:05:59.339 That is the baby. If his zeal to clean the church 00:05:59.339 --> 00:06:02.000 destroys the believer's connection to God or 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.480 fractures the foundation of the faith, he has 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.180 failed. He has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. 00:06:07.399 --> 00:06:09.740 That puts the excessive zeal definition into 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:12.639 high definition. Luther was accused of exactly 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.680 that, of being so zealous against corruption 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:18.300 that he broke the church. Exactly. He had to 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:21.019 be incredibly precise and then look at Kepler. 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:22.980 Science is a little different though. science 00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:25.680 is about replacing old ideas with new ones true 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:28.660 but kepler was operating in a time when astronomy 00:06:28.660 --> 00:06:31.500 was mixed up with astrology and ancient greek 00:06:31.500 --> 00:06:34.040 philosophy he had to filter through centuries 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:37.360 of bad data and wrong assumptions bath water 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:40.040 to find the mathematical truths hidden inside 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:42.860 so if he just said all ancient science is garbage 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:45.899 he loses right if he throws out the whole classical 00:06:45.899 --> 00:06:48.360 tradition he might lose the geometric principles 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.569 he needs to prove his theory He had to save the 00:06:51.569 --> 00:06:54.209 baby, the data, while tossing the bathwater, 00:06:54.389 --> 00:06:56.449 the superstition. So for these guys, this wasn't 00:06:56.449 --> 00:06:59.089 just a cute saying. It was a strategic risk assessment. 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:01.870 It was the central tension of their work. How 00:07:01.870 --> 00:07:04.250 do I change the paradigm without destroying the 00:07:04.250 --> 00:07:07.410 foundation? And Bismarck. That feels like the 00:07:07.410 --> 00:07:09.970 highest stakes of all. Statecraft is the ultimate 00:07:09.970 --> 00:07:13.209 bathwater challenge. Bismarck is trying to unify 00:07:13.209 --> 00:07:16.230 a bunch of disparate German starts into one nation. 00:07:16.759 --> 00:07:19.339 He has to get rid of the old, inefficient local 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:22.680 governances. That's the dirty water. But if he 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:25.300 strips away too much of the local culture or 00:07:25.300 --> 00:07:28.360 identity? You get rebellion. You lose the nation 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:31.439 you're trying to build. You lose the baby. It's 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:33.519 fascinating that a phrase from a woodcut about 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:36.240 a foolish housewife became the guiding principle 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.540 for the unification of Germany. It speaks to 00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:41.199 how universal the problem is. Categorization 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:43.480 is hard work. Whether you are washing a baby 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:45.699 or building an empire, you have to know what 00:07:45.699 --> 00:07:47.959 to keep. So that's the German pedigree. It's 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:50.759 deep. It's intellectual. It's high stakes. But 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:52.740 we are speaking English. How did it cross the 00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:55.199 channel? Did it just drift over with trade? Not 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:56.920 exactly. We can actually point to a specific 00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:59.860 literary bridge, a writer named Thomas Carlyle. 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:03.699 Carlyle. OK. When is this? This is 1849. So we've 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:06.540 jumped forward about 300 years from Myrna's woodcut. 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:09.540 And what is the context? Because the notes here 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.920 mention slavery. Yes. This is where we have to 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.079 be really precise with the historical context. 00:08:14.819 --> 00:08:18.019 Carlyle wrote an essay in 1849 addressing what 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:21.620 was known then as the Negro question. That is 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:24.819 a heavy pivot from German astronomy. How does 00:08:24.819 --> 00:08:27.579 the bathwater idiom fit into a debate on slavery? 00:08:28.019 --> 00:08:30.160 Well, Carlyle was adapting the German proverb 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:32.600 to make a point about abolition and economics. 00:08:33.419 --> 00:08:35.980 Let's look at the specific text because his phrasing 00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:38.779 is unique and it tells us how he viewed the problem. 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:41.320 I have the quote here. Carlisle wrote, The Germans 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:44.019 say you must empty out the bathing tub, but not 00:08:44.019 --> 00:08:46.759 the baby along with it. Fling out your dirty 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:49.519 water with all zeal and set it careening down 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:51.919 the kennels, but try if you can keep the little 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.039 child. Try if you can keep the little child. 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:56.879 It's that word zeal again. Fling out your dirty 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:00.159 water with all zeal. Yes. And based strictly 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.460 on the text provided, we can see his argument 00:09:02.460 --> 00:09:05.179 structure. The dirty water he is referring to 00:09:05.179 --> 00:09:07.659 is the institution of slavery. He is acknowledging 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:10.059 that it needs to be flung out. So he's engaging 00:09:10.059 --> 00:09:11.700 with the abolitionist argument. He's saying, 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:15.179 yes, dump the water. He is, but he uses the idiom 00:09:15.179 --> 00:09:17.820 to insert a condition. He's warning the British 00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:20.360 public and the government. He's saying, essentially, 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:23.899 yes, end the system, but be careful. In his view, 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.679 the baby represented the people, the enslaved 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:29.440 population, and the economic structure that sustained 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:32.379 them. So he's arguing that a chaotic, zealous 00:09:32.379 --> 00:09:35.120 destruction of the system would harm the very 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:37.320 people it was meant to help. That's the application. 00:09:38.009 --> 00:09:40.169 He's warning against unintended consequences. 00:09:40.629 --> 00:09:43.350 He's saying that if you let your moral zeal drive 00:09:43.350 --> 00:09:46.070 the process without practical safeguards, you 00:09:46.070 --> 00:09:48.490 destroy the human beings caught in the gears. 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:51.350 It's a very stark application. We went from a 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:54.210 woodcut about foolishness to a geopolitical debate 00:09:54.210 --> 00:09:56.509 about human bondage. It shows the elasticity 00:09:56.509 --> 00:09:59.309 of the metaphor. It works for household chores, 00:09:59.669 --> 00:10:01.909 it works for scientific revolution, and it works 00:10:01.909 --> 00:10:04.429 for massive social upheaval. But the core mechanism 00:10:04.429 --> 00:10:07.110 is always the same. You identify a bad thing, 00:10:07.250 --> 00:10:09.909 slavery, corruption, dirt. You generate energy 00:10:09.909 --> 00:10:12.389 to remove it. That's the zeal. And in that rush, 00:10:12.450 --> 00:10:14.490 you threaten the good thing, the people, the 00:10:14.490 --> 00:10:17.789 faith, the child. And the English language didn't 00:10:17.789 --> 00:10:20.370 stop with Carlisle. We've kept trying to reinvent 00:10:20.370 --> 00:10:23.009 this. The source material mentions a few variations 00:10:23.009 --> 00:10:25.470 that have popped up over the years. Yeah, there 00:10:25.470 --> 00:10:27.909 was one I hadn't heard before. The champagne 00:10:27.909 --> 00:10:31.429 variation. Ah, yes. Throw out the champagne with 00:10:31.429 --> 00:10:33.169 the cork. That is attributed to George Bernard 00:10:33.169 --> 00:10:36.210 Shaw, right? Yes, specifically in his writings 00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:39.110 on Shakespeare. I have to say, I prefer the baby 00:10:39.110 --> 00:10:42.929 version. The champagne one feels incredibly low 00:10:42.929 --> 00:10:45.009 stakes. It is low stakes. That's why I think 00:10:45.009 --> 00:10:47.230 it never really caught on in the same way. If 00:10:47.230 --> 00:10:48.789 you throw out the champagne, what happens? You're 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:50.590 out 50 bucks. You're disappointed. You have to 00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:53.110 drink water. Right. Nobody dies. But with the 00:10:53.110 --> 00:10:55.809 baby, it's tragic. It's irreversible. And I think 00:10:55.809 --> 00:10:58.149 that's why the original idiom has survived for 00:10:58.149 --> 00:11:02.110 500 years. It bypasses the logic center of your 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:04.850 brain and goes straight to the amygdala. It scares 00:11:04.850 --> 00:11:07.169 you into being careful. It raises the cost of 00:11:07.169 --> 00:11:09.690 the error. Exactly. If the cost of the error 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:11.690 is... just spilled wine, I might be careless. 00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:14.429 If the cost is a dead infant, I'm going to check 00:11:14.429 --> 00:11:17.149 the tub twice. There was another variation in 00:11:17.149 --> 00:11:18.990 the notes that was less about the image and more 00:11:18.990 --> 00:11:21.970 about the grammar. Empty the baby out with the 00:11:21.970 --> 00:11:25.330 bath. Yes. This one is subtle but interesting 00:11:25.330 --> 00:11:28.730 linguistically. Don't throw the baby out focuses 00:11:28.730 --> 00:11:32.730 on the object, the baby. You are holding the 00:11:32.730 --> 00:11:35.299 baby and throwing it. But empty the baby out. 00:11:35.419 --> 00:11:38.279 It focuses on the action of the vessel. You are 00:11:38.279 --> 00:11:40.960 emptying the tub. The baby just happens to be 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.399 contents. That sounds even more negligent. It 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:44.940 sounds mechanical. Like you didn't even know 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:47.399 the baby was there. It reinforces that idea of 00:11:47.399 --> 00:11:49.860 the blind spot. When you empty, you are focused 00:11:49.860 --> 00:11:52.500 on the void. You want the tub empty. You aren't 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:55.200 looking at what is leaving. Which brings us back 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:57.379 to that. So what we promised in the beginning, 00:11:57.460 --> 00:11:59.360 we've looked at the history, the intellectuals, 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:02.720 the variations. But if we distill this down for 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.159 someone listening today, someone who isn't unifying 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:08.980 Germany or reforming the church, what is the 00:12:08.980 --> 00:12:11.279 takeaway? The synthesis really comes back to 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.779 that second definition, discarding the essential 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.379 while retaining the superfluous. It sounds like 00:12:16.379 --> 00:12:18.340 a categorization problem. It is fundamentally 00:12:18.340 --> 00:12:20.419 a categorization problem. And it's a problem 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:24.120 of speed. Think about the zeal component. Zeal 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:28.789 acts fast. Disgust acts fast. If I see dirty 00:12:28.789 --> 00:12:32.049 water, my instinct is get this away from me immediately. 00:12:32.309 --> 00:12:34.190 Right. It's a purge instinct. I just want it 00:12:34.190 --> 00:12:37.289 gone. But discernment, figuring out what is essential, 00:12:37.549 --> 00:12:40.210 is slow. You have to stop. You have to put your 00:12:40.210 --> 00:12:42.389 hands in the murky water. You have to feel around 00:12:42.389 --> 00:12:44.129 for the child. And nobody wants to put their 00:12:44.129 --> 00:12:46.210 hands in dirty water. Exactly. It's unpleasant. 00:12:46.330 --> 00:12:48.809 It's much easier to just kick the tub over. So 00:12:48.809 --> 00:12:51.190 the avoidable error happens when we prioritize 00:12:51.190 --> 00:12:55.320 the relief. of getting rid of the bad thing over 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:58.059 the duty of protecting the good thing. That's 00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:00.299 a brilliant way to put it. We prioritize relief 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:03.360 over protection. We prioritize the emptying over 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:05.700 the baby. The source material mentions that this 00:13:05.700 --> 00:13:09.000 is an avoidable error. I find that word avoidable 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.559 Almost hopeful. It is hopeful. It implies that 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:13.659 this isn't fate. You don't have to lose the baby. 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:15.759 We often present these things as trade -offs. 00:13:15.980 --> 00:13:17.820 Oh, well, to make an omelet, you have to break 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:19.980 a few eggs. To fix the company, we had to fire 00:13:19.980 --> 00:13:22.080 the whole department. Right. We rationalize the 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:24.779 loss of the baby as collateral damage. Exactly. 00:13:25.179 --> 00:13:28.279 But this idiom argues against that. It says, 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.279 no, you idiot, you didn't have to throw the baby 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:32.220 out. You just needed to be more careful. You 00:13:32.220 --> 00:13:34.620 needed to filter the water. The goal is a clean 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:37.909 baby, not an empty room. I love that. The goal 00:13:37.909 --> 00:13:41.610 is a clean baby, not an empty room. That really 00:13:41.610 --> 00:13:44.110 sums up the wisdom of those German intellectuals. 00:13:44.110 --> 00:13:47.070 Whether it's Luther or Bismarck, they knew that 00:13:47.070 --> 00:13:50.169 an empty room, a destroyed church, a broken state 00:13:50.169 --> 00:13:53.490 was a failure, even if it was clean. We have 00:13:53.490 --> 00:13:55.629 covered a lot of ground today. We started with 00:13:55.629 --> 00:13:59.460 a 1512 satire called Appeal to Fools. which is 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:01.240 still the best book title I've heard all year. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:03.200 It's a total classic. We traveled through the 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.480 mines of Kepler and Bismarck, seeing how they 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:08.460 navigated the dirty water of their eras. We saw 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:11.460 Carlyle use the phrase to warn against the dangers 00:14:11.460 --> 00:14:14.299 of zealous reform in the 1840s. And we've landed 00:14:14.299 --> 00:14:16.480 right back here. It's a long journey for a proverb 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:18.519 about hygiene. But it all comes down to that 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:21.240 one moment of decision, standing the window with 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:23.259 the tub. And taking that one extra second to 00:14:23.259 --> 00:14:24.860 check what's inside. I want to leave you with 00:14:24.860 --> 00:14:27.399 a final thought, inspired by that George Bernard 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:30.570 Shaw variation. The champagne and the cork. Okay, 00:14:30.649 --> 00:14:33.710 let's hear it. We all have problems we are trying 00:14:33.710 --> 00:14:36.470 to solve right now. Maybe you're reorganizing 00:14:36.470 --> 00:14:38.889 a team. Maybe you're ending a relationship. Maybe 00:14:38.889 --> 00:14:41.509 you're just cleaning out your garage. You are 00:14:41.509 --> 00:14:44.629 ready to pop the cork. You have the zeal. But 00:14:44.629 --> 00:14:47.690 the question remains. In your rush to solve the 00:14:47.690 --> 00:14:50.990 problem, to pop that cork, are you about to spill 00:14:50.990 --> 00:14:54.049 the champagne? Are you so focused on the release 00:14:54.049 --> 00:14:57.090 of pressure that you're losing the value? That 00:14:57.090 --> 00:14:58.950 is a question worth sitting with. Think about 00:14:58.950 --> 00:15:01.230 it and check the tub. Thanks for joining us on 00:15:01.230 --> 00:15:02.509 this deep dive. See you next time.