The story of the five frogs
My friend, Miles Henson, introduced me to this story. It concerns five frogs who sat together on a log. One of them decided to jump off. 'How many were left on the log?' Miles asked me.
My immediate thought was that four remained on the log, working on the basis of simple subtaction, but if that were the case Miles wouldn't have thought it worth telling me the story. Then I started thinking of what would happen if the frog unbalanced the log when leaping off, tipping one or more of his fellows from their own perches, but there was really no way to make a guess from the information I had.
Miles told me that there were still five frogs on the log. One of them decided to jump off, but he hadn't taken any action yet.
How much time do we all spend sitting on the log, having decided to do something but not actually doing it?
Ray Blake
2 Comments
Reader Comments (2)
Great story. I'm definitely guilty of too much "deciding" and not enough acting. Thanks for sharing this.
I love that log, its so comfy, I guess you have to jump some time though.