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Comment by italophil | Hacker News Reader

Not only eastern cultures have the concept. In German there is the phrase 'a steady water drop hollows a stone' and it actually traces back to the Roman author Ovid 'gutta cavat lapidem'. Perseverance is just so much harder than instant gratification.

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Just to show Yanks have it too, "slow and steady wins the race".

Which in my mind has always been linked with The Tortoise and the Hare -- which is then from Aesop / Greece.

Well you can't really reject all elements of American culture that have their roots in Europe as not American or else you end up without a whole lot to work with.

My pappy always said, if you shoot it and it's still standing, keep shooting it! Small, incremental changes!

Well that wouldn't be very good! Let's embrace them then.

One rain does not make a crop. — Creole

I always thought story-myths like Star Wars and The Karate Kid fulfilled the role of fairytales and parables for the comparatively young culture of United States. I'm only half-kidding. I bet Yoda has a few choice quotes related to exactly this subject?

It seems to me that that's lost the idea of incremental improvement. It's about taking the time to do things right, but there's no sense of making it better.

Hm, that's a good point. A favorite saying around here is, "If you don't have time to do it right, you don't have time to do it over!" There's a big emphasis on doing something right, and if you have to go back and improve it later, that's a failure.

Interesting. The same phrase 'a steady water drop hollows a stone' also exists in Chinese: 水滴石穿, and it also traces back to 2000 years old classics.

I don't want to disappoint you, but the same phrase exists in so many languages that I'm afraid it isn't something culture-specific.

Little known fact, water had lots of sediment and grit in it back then. Wore lots of things down.

In india the phrase is: "Continuous movement of rope can make mark on stone, like it makes on the wall of a well".

HINDI: "Rasari aavat javat re, sil par parat nishaan"

In (Brazilian) Portuguese: "Água mole em pedra dura, tanto bate até que fura".

There's nothing specifically Brazilian about that sentence. In fact, it's a quite common saying in Portugal.

Thanks! I did not know that.

I usually prefer to err on the side of being too specific. :)

Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovidium)

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