How to Read “Lose the meaning by drawing an analogy”
Tatoe o hikite gi o ushinau
Meaning of “Lose the meaning by drawing an analogy”
This proverb warns against getting so caught up in an analogy that you forget the original point. When explaining something, people often use analogies to make things clearer.
But if the analogy becomes too interesting or too detailed, both the speaker and listener get distracted by it. The important meaning or lesson you wanted to share gets lost.
This can happen in many situations. Presentations at meetings, explanations in class, everyday conversations. For example, you give a specific example to explain a principle.
Then the discussion gets heated about tiny details of that example. Everyone forgets what you originally wanted to say. This proverb points out such backwards situations.
Even today, it warns us about the danger of letting methods become goals. The saying hasn’t lost its value in modern times.
Origin and Etymology
There are various theories about the exact origin of this proverb. However, the way it uses the words “analogy” and “meaning” suggests it was influenced by ancient Chinese philosophy.
“Tatoe” means an analogy or example used to explain things clearly. “Gi” refers to the original meaning or correct principle. “Hikite” means to draw upon or bring out.
So the structure shows how drawing an analogy can make you lose sight of the correct principle you should convey.
Since ancient times, analogies have been valued when teaching. Buddhist scriptures use many parables. Confucianism also used concrete examples for explanation.
But when an analogy becomes too interesting or too detailed, both listeners and speakers focus on the analogy itself. The essential lesson fails to get through.
This proverb likely emerged as a warning against such backwards situations.
The human tendency to lose sight of essence while pursuing clarity crosses all eras. This proverb is a crystallization of wisdom that expresses this universal problem concisely.
Usage Examples
- His presentation had such interesting analogies that it became a case of “lose the meaning by drawing an analogy”
- I got too absorbed in creating diagrams for explanation and almost ended up “losing the meaning by drawing an analogy”
Universal Wisdom
Humans have a fundamental desire to simplify complex things for understanding. We feel reassured when we replace abstract concepts or difficult theories with familiar analogies.
But here lies an interesting human contradiction. The analogy meant to help understanding somehow becomes the main character.
Why does this happen? Because concrete things are overwhelmingly more attractive than abstract ones. The story of Momotaro defeating demons sticks in memory better than the question “What is justice?”
Our brains prefer concrete images.
This proverb has been passed down for so long because it touches on the essential difficulty of communication. We constantly struggle with the gap between what we want to convey and what actually gets conveyed.
The more we pursue clarity, the further we drift from essence. Our ancestors saw through this ironic truth.
Neither teachers nor learners can completely escape this trap. That’s why we must constantly return to asking “Why am I talking now?” and “What should I understand?”
This proverb shows us this eternal human challenge in simple words.
When AI Hears This
When humans explain complex concepts through analogies, what’s actually happening is “lossy compression” in information theory terms. For example, when you compress an image with JPEG, you can’t restore the original quality.
Similarly, the moment you convert abstract truth into concrete analogy, the original information can’t be fully restored.
Claude Shannon, founder of information theory, mathematically proved that every communication channel has a limit called “channel capacity.” The capacity of analogy as a channel is far smaller than the information volume of the original concept.
This is because analogy squeezes information into the simple correspondence of “A is like B.” Of the multidimensional meanings the original concept holds, analogy can convey only one or two dimensional aspects.
Even more interesting is the “decoding error” on the receiving end. The information the sender intended and the information the receiver reconstructs from the analogy always diverge.
This is the same phenomenon as error rates in noisy communication channels. The clearer the analogy, the more compressed the information becomes and the more essence is lost.
The more accurate the analogy tries to be, the more complex it becomes and the less it communicates. This tradeoff is exactly the “inverse relationship between compression rate and quality” in data compression.
In other words, this proverb intuitively grasped hundreds of years ago that information loss in communication is unavoidable like a physical law.
Lessons for Today
This proverb offers extremely important lessons for modern communication. In the age of social media and presentations, we focus too much on “how to convey things clearly and impressively.”
We tend to forget “what we should convey.”
What matters is always being conscious of your purpose. When you speak at a meeting, explain in class, or give someone advice, ask yourself “Why am I talking now?”
If you use an analogy, always return to the main point after it ends. Develop the habit of clarifying “In other words, what do I want to say?”
As listeners too, we need an attitude of not getting swept away by interesting analogies. We should think “What’s the essence of this story?”
Precisely because we’re flooded with information today, we need the power to see through to the core without being misled by superficial interest.
Don’t confuse means with ends. It’s simple, but this is the key to fulfilling communication. May your words truly deliver what you really want to convey.
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