The Dead Horse Theory: Why We Keep Beating Problems We Should Let Go
The “Dead Horse Theory” is a satirical metaphor that reflects how some people, institutions or nations face obvious problems that are impossible to solve, but instead of accepting reality, they cling to justifying them.
The central idea is clear: if you find that you are riding a dead horse, the most sensible thing to do is to get off and leave it.
However, in practice, the opposite often happens. Instead of abandoning the dead horse, measures are taken such as:
• Buying a new saddle for the horse.
• Improving the horse's feed, even though it is dead.
• Changing the jockey instead of addressing the real problem.
• Firing the horse's caretaker and hiring someone new, hoping for a different result.
• Organizing meetings to discuss how to increase the dead horse's speed.
• Creating committees or task forces to analyze the dead horse problem from all angles. These committees work for months, draw up reports, and finally conclude the obvious: the horse is dead.
• Justifying efforts by comparing the horse to other similar dead horses, concluding that the problem was a lack of training.
• Proposing training courses for the horse, which implies increasing the budget.
• Redefining the concept of "dead" to convince themselves that the horse still has possibilities.
Lesson learned:
This theory highlights how many people and organizations prefer to deny reality and waste time, resources and efforts on useless solutions, instead of accepting the problem from the beginning and making smarter and more effective decisions.
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