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Comment by quietbritishjim | Hacker News Reader

> more effective to cut bait (there’s one!)

I have no idea what you mean by this, I can't even figure out roughly what you mean from context, so I guess that's a weakness of them for a start.

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"Cut bait" isn't really a metaphor by this time; it's more an idiom that is based on a metaphor. It comes from "fish or cut bait", that is, either do one thing or the other. It means to stop being indecisive, to come to the point.

Seems analogous to "get off the pot" although glossing over the alternative is less common for this one.

Sometimes a metaphor doesn’t make sense so you might abandon it for another rather than trying to stretch it.

Sometimes when fishing you catch something your rod or skill level is not capable of reeling in. So you are better to cut the line/bait rather than lose your whole rod.

I was enlightened to read your interpretation, which Wikipedia indeed lists as a "more modern, alternative interpretation".

The prevailing interpretation is a directive to make a decision rather than dally:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_or_cut_bait

That's funny, I'd always interpreted it as you can either:

- fish, or

- cut bait (slice baitfish into bait-sized pieces)

Of course, the latter activity is not fishing, merely fishing-adjacent.

Two distinct expressions that happen to share words. Is how I thought of it. Certainly in the context of the OP it seems he is not presenting an either or but a change course.

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