Law of holes

The first law of holes, or the law of holes, is an adage which states: "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging".[1][2] Digging a hole makes it deeper and therefore harder to get out of, which is used as a metaphor that when in an untenable position, it is best to stop carrying on and exacerbating the situation.

An excavator that is in a hole and has stopped digging

Attribution

The adage has been attributed to a number of sources. It appeared in print on page six of The Washington Post dated October 25, 1911, in the form: "Nor would a wise man, seeing that he was in a hole, go to work and blindly dig it deeper..."[3]

In 1983 Bill Brock was quoted "Let me tell you about the law of holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."[4]

In the United Kingdom, it has been referred to as "Healey's first law of holes"[2] after politician Denis Healey, who used the adage in the 1980s and later.[1] Some sources misattribute the phrase to American humorist Will Rogers.[5]

gollark: Or else...?
gollark: No.
gollark: it's better than the £10 WiFi adapter which doesn't actually work.
gollark: On that note, I'm copying some files over really slow powerline LAN, and the syncing tool I'm using complains about some hash mismatches. I'm beginning to worry that that LAN connection has been corrupting data very occasionally and slightly and I just haven't noticed.
gollark: it's a "server" now.

References
  1. Apperson, George Latimer (2006). The Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs. Ware: Wordsworth Editions. p. 283. ISBN 978-1840223118.
  2. Lloyd, John; Hargreaves, Ian (8 November 1996). "Interview: Denis Healey; Healey's first law of holes is to stop digging". New Statesman. 9. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014 – via HighBeam Business.
  3. Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (2012). The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300136029.
  4. "Is That Dirt Being Shoveled?". The Bankers Magazine. 166 (3): 61. May–June 1983.
  5. Will Rogers Legacy. California Department of Parks and Recreation
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