The Crow and the Pitcher

Never give up, little by little does the trick

The Crow and the Pitcher is one of Aesop’s fables. It relates an ancient observation about behaviour that recent scientific studies have confirmed is goal-directed and indicative of causal knowledge rather than simply being due to operant conditioning.

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it.

He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair.

Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.

The moral of the story?

Don’t give up at the first sign of failure. In fact, never give up! Any obstacle can be overcome, and often little by little does the trick.

As Warren Buffett says,

”Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.”