Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #18 The Measurements Are More Reliable! (愚人買鞋）
Fixation with rules
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
Story
A man in the State of Zheng decided to buy himself a new pair of shoes. Before he went to the store, he took careful measurements of his feet and noted the dimensions on a piece of paper.
But he forgot to bring his note along. At the store, he found a pair of shoes he liked very much. He was about to try them on when he suddenly remembered that he had left his note at home.
“I’ve left my measurements at home,” he told the storekeeper. “I’m now going to get them. I’ll be back soon.”
Immediately he hurried home to fetch the note. By the time he returned, the store was closed, so he could not buy the shoes after all.
The next day the man related the incident to a friend. The friend asked, “Why didn’t you try them on to see if they fit?”
“Well,” answered the man, “I ‘d rather trust the measurement than myself.”
Meaning
This story satirizes those who follow certain inflexible rules too strictly, and do not know how to adapt to the…
