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    Frog in the Boiling Water

    IT Careers
    psychology
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    • scottalanmillerS
      scottalanmiller
      last edited by scottalanmiller

      The "frog in the boiling water" problem comes from situations where things start off "okay" maybe even good, and over time things get worse a little at a time with no single change in a scenario being bad enough to truly trigger an "evaluation response." This can apply to almost anything and is not specifically an IT topic.

      The term comes from the fact that if you drop a frog into boiling water, it knows that it is boiling and jumps out instantly. But if you put a frog into luke water and warm it up slowly over time, the frog doesn't notice the changes and will boil alive, which is bad.

      In life we face the same things. Maybe it is our work environment, slowly the quality of our job gets worse and worse. But just a little at a time and over a few years we forget how nice it used to be and now we are unhappy and don't realize that work has gotten so much worse because no single thing happened to make us take notice. Or maybe our network gets slowly worse over time, just one little thing at a time. First it is an unnecessary package, then it is no longer using GPOs and eventually we are giving everyone local admin accounts without realizing what we have done.

      This is a life factor that everyone needs to understand and look out for and provides a powerful tool for talking about problems in our careers, jobs, systems and lives.

      BRRABillB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
      • DustinB3403D
        DustinB3403
        last edited by

        I would think that you could see that things are getting worse, in one way or another. An email that rubs you the wrong way, a quip, extended hours etc etc.

        Sure I suppose that equates to the water getting hotter over a period of time.

        This is probably an issue that also includes the sunk cost fallacy. Maybe the frog likes the hotter water, until it was too late.

        scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • scottalanmillerS
          scottalanmiller @DustinB3403
          last edited by

          @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

          I would think that you could see that things are getting worse, in one way or another. An email that rubs you the wrong way, a quip, extended hours etc etc.

          Those things happen during normal times, though, they don't indicate a gradual slip towards a lower state.

          In physics terms, it's like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle... particles dance around and you can't tell from just one position measurement if the particle has moved or not, you need a trend of movements to know and no single movement would make you realize that you need to take more measurements or track them.

          bbigfordB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • DustinB3403D
            DustinB3403
            last edited by

            Sure but the first leads to the latter.

            If you're getting "WTF emails" regularly or even semi-occasionally that is the water getting hotter.

            The events trigger the temperature change in the water. It just occurs so slowly that the frog sits there, not really noticing because it's become normal to receive a "WTF email" over something.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • BRRABillB
              BRRABill @scottalanmiller
              last edited by

              @scottalanmiller said

              The term comes from the fact that if you drop a frog into boiling water, it knows that it is boiling and jumps out instantly. But if you put a frog into luke water and warm it up slowly over time, the frog doesn't notice the changes and will boil alive, which is bad.

              So is dropping a frog into boiling water.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • wirestyle22W
                wirestyle22
                last edited by

                My entire network

                DustinB3403D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • DustinB3403D
                  DustinB3403 @wirestyle22
                  last edited by

                  @wirestyle22 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                  My entire network

                  is? . . .

                  You didn't finish that thought.

                  wirestyle22W 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • wirestyle22W
                    wirestyle22 @DustinB3403
                    last edited by

                    @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                    @wirestyle22 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                    My entire network

                    is? . . .

                    You didn't finish that thought.

                    a frog in boiling water

                    DustinB3403D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DustinB3403D
                      DustinB3403 @wirestyle22
                      last edited by DustinB3403

                      @wirestyle22 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                      @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                      @wirestyle22 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                      My entire network

                      is? . . .

                      You didn't finish that thought.

                      a frog in boiling water

                      So slowly cooking.

                      Have you tried "turning the heat off" ?

                      wirestyle22W 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • NicN
                        Nic
                        last edited by

                        To debunk the frog story a bit, in the experiment where they sat in the slowly boiling water, they were decorticated first. So the only frog that stays in water that boils is one with brain damage 🙂

                        DustinB3403D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • wirestyle22W
                          wirestyle22 @DustinB3403
                          last edited by

                          @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                          @wirestyle22 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                          @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                          @wirestyle22 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                          My entire network

                          is? . . .

                          You didn't finish that thought.

                          a frog in boiling water

                          So slowly cooking.

                          Have you tried "turning the heat off" ?

                          I'm in the process of walking away from the oven and getting a new apartment

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • DustinB3403D
                            DustinB3403 @Nic
                            last edited by DustinB3403

                            @Nic said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                            To debunk the frog story a bit, in the experiment where they sat in the slowly boiling water, they were decorticated first. So the only frog that stays in water that boils is one with brain damage 🙂

                            Which likely occurs from the boiling water.... which in another way means, as you see things beginning to boil, you begin to care less and less and just let it get worse.

                            NicN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • NicN
                              Nic @DustinB3403
                              last edited by

                              @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                              @Nic said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                              To debunk the frog story a bit, in the experiment where they sat in the slowly boiling water, they were decorticated first. So the only frog that stays in water that boils is one with brain damage 🙂

                              Which likely occurs from the boiling water.... which in another way means, as you see things beginning to boil, you begin to care less and less and just let it get worse.

                              No, the brain was removed first 🙂 https://thinkprogress.org/stop-saying-humans-are-like-slowly-boiling-frogs-f27537e83355

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • bbigfordB
                                bbigford @scottalanmiller
                                last edited by

                                @scottalanmiller said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                                @DustinB3403 said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                                I would think that you could see that things are getting worse, in one way or another. An email that rubs you the wrong way, a quip, extended hours etc etc.

                                Those things happen during normal times, though, they don't indicate a gradual slip towards a lower state.

                                Exactly.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • scottalanmillerS
                                  scottalanmiller
                                  last edited by

                                  So you are saying that humans are dumber than frogs in water?

                                  travisdh1T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • travisdh1T
                                    travisdh1 @scottalanmiller
                                    last edited by

                                    @scottalanmiller said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                                    So you are saying that humans are dumber than frogs in water?

                                    So you are saying that humans are dumber than frogs in water without a brain.?

                                    FTFY

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • momurdaM
                                      momurda
                                      last edited by

                                      How can a frog live without a brain? That is something that isnt explained.
                                      0_1490824943295_upload-9f7ed910-9b5f-436a-aa84-b1ee1c7684e5
                                      How is it not dead if it has no brain? I understand their brains arent as complex as a humans, but can they actually live without them?

                                      NicN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • NicN
                                        Nic @momurda
                                        last edited by

                                        @momurda I think they left the brainstem so that basic functions still worked and just scooped out the rest of the brain. Kind of like that headless chicken that lived for years:
                                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

                                        momurdaM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • momurdaM
                                          momurda @Nic
                                          last edited by

                                          @Nic WTF? that is crazy

                                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • scottalanmillerS
                                            scottalanmiller @momurda
                                            last edited by

                                            @momurda said in Frog in the Boiling Water:

                                            @Nic WTF? that is crazy

                                            Didn't grow up on a farm I guess. The entire term "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" comes from the fact that chickens continue to live for quite some time without a head.

                                            momurdaM JaredBuschJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
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