That Story of a Frog in Boiling Water

There is a time worn story that I’m sure you’ve heard before. A frog sits in a cool pot of water. The pot of water is slowly heated, and the frog relaxes in the warmth not realizing the danger until it’s too late. When he finally tries to jump out of the pot — he’s already cooking and dies.

Photo by Ladd Greene on Unsplash

Biologists and wikipedia say this is false. Yes. In fact, it seems if you want to get a frog to behave this way you literally have to remove its brain. At this point, it’s safe to say that frogs should probably be more worried about sadistic humans than boiling water.

But one thing about this saying has always made me curious…

Why does this story stick?

I’ve heard many, many people use this story. So have you, I’m sure. The thing is this story speaks to some deeper truth in us. It speaks to us about insidious danger. It speaks to us like a warning to be vigilant about metaphorical boiling pots of water. And so, despite the factual falseness of frogs and their susceptibility to boiling — the story remains wildly told because of its practical wisdom and wide applications.

Here’s what I take issue with though. It’s not actually a good model. A story like exists because humans have evolved to pass wisdom (evolutionarily successful strategies) to one another in the form of stories and the boiling frog does not do a good job of it.

I think the boiling frog is a poor modern substitute for the same story that is told in Doctor Faustus. The titular Faustus isn’t a lobotomized frog, he’s a scholar. Still, he makes a pact with he devil for incredible short term gains in exchange for a price very far down the road. He spends 24 years living the life as one might say — until he then eventually must die and be taken to hell for the rest of eternity. Doctor Faustus is a 400 year old play, but I think it makes the point that the boiling frog is trying to make much, much better.

So what is the point?

Here’s the key difference. Doctor Faustus architects his own demise, while the boiling frog simply fails to react to a bad situation. To actually apply the lessons that the boiling frog story is trying to convey, I think it’s important to keep 3 things in mind.

1. We discount distant gains and losses in favor of nearer ones — but distant losses still come some day.
2. Even (especially) the intelligent are vulnerable to the trap of optimizing near-term gains.
3. It’s not a question of jumping out of the pot. We have to stop heating the water.

The frog in the pot does not actively creating its situation. We do.

How to apply this: Questions to ask yourself

Consider your current situation at your business, or in your personal life and ask yourself questions along the following lines:

・What great short term strategies do I have that are working really well?

・What are the consequences of infinitely repeating this strategy?

If the long term consequence is negative you might be in a situation where you can end up like the proverbial frog. This is because it is difficult to stop repeating a strategy that is good in the short term, even if it is crippling in the long term.