Definition of Insanity: Why Doing Things Differently Isn't Enough

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

You've heard this one. You've probably fallen into the trap it describes, too.

Where the quote actually comes from

Einstein didn't say it. Researchers have looked, and the phrase doesn't appear in any of his writings, letters, or documented speeches.

The earliest versions trace to 12-step recovery communities. A close match appears in Narcotics Anonymous literature from the early 1980s. From there it spread, got smoothed down, and eventually landed on Einstein's tab. He gets credit for a lot of apocryphal lines: the definition of genius, the fish-climbing-trees quote, and several dozen others he never wrote.

None of that changes the point. It survived because it's true.

But just doing things differently isn't the answer

Here's what I think people get wrong about the trap.

The real danger doesn't come from something new that isn't working. It comes from something that used to work and now doesn't.

Most of us are smart enough to recognize a failed experiment. Try something new, it doesn't work, adjust and try again. Even mice in a maze learn to take different paths.

The harder problem is when we've become conditioned to success. When something works for a while and then it stops, that's when it's tough to change. We don't keep repeating the same thing because we're stupid or because we don't know better. We do it because we love the familiar. We're most at risk when we're repeating what used to work.

"Why isn't it working?" we ask. "Maybe if I just try one more time, that will do it."

The harder question: different how?

Most advice stops at "do something different." That's not guidance. It's a restatement of the problem.

Three questions worth asking when something used to work and now doesn't:

What are you measuring? You can swap out tactics, keep the same metric, and call that "trying something different." If the measurement itself is wrong, no new tactic will fix it. Think of someone who keeps launching new products to the same small audience instead of growing the audience—they're changing what they sell, not solving the real problem.

Has the environment changed? A strategy that worked in a specific moment—a favorable market, a different moment in the culture, an earlier phase of your career—may not travel. The world keeps moving. Your playbook may not have kept up.

Have you changed? Sometimes the strategy isn't broken. You've outgrown it. Skills, priorities, and circumstances shift. The approach that fit who you were five years ago might not fit who you are now.

These questions don't have clean answers. But they shift the frame. You stop asking "why isn't this working?" and start asking "what needs to change here?"

That's a better question. It tends to lead somewhere.

Should you get back up and try again? Yes. But try again differently—and make sure you know what differently means.

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Image: Mark