Episode 129 • Making Progress
Slowly but surely
You win some, you lose some
Go in circles
Come a long way
Sooner or later
Story
Roger: Dude, I just had the best idea for a product that could literally change people’s lives!
Phil: Again?! Oh, man. I don’t know if I can go through this again.
Roger: No, listen to me. This time is different!
Phil: You said the exact same thing the last four times! I don’t think we’re meant to be inventors.
Roger: Of course, we’re meant to be inventors. You said so yourself!
Phil: Yeah, I said that once to you when we were 7 and I was going through this phase in which I was obsessed with Leonardo Da Vinci!
Roger: Still, I think we’re getting better… Don’t you think?! I mean, we’re definitely making progress, slowly but surely, I mean… we have more ideas, our prototypes are getting better…
Phil: That’s what we think. But then everybody seems to think our products suck!
Roger: Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It’s part of life.
Phil: Yeah, only we’ve never won anything, you know?
Roger: I’m telling you. You’re going to love this idea! Just listen to me!
Phil: No, you listen to me. We’re going in circles. We’ve been doing the same thing over and over for what? A year. I think it’s time we start looking for a real job or something.
Roger: You don’t see it, do you?! We’ve come such a long way since we started this project. Remember the first prototype we built?
Phil: The Banana Master?
Roger: Yes, the machine that could take any fruit and shape it into a banana?
Phil: What a stupid idea!
Roger: Agreed! But you see, at least now we look back and we can see how stupid that idea was! You can’t say we haven’t made progress! We just need to keep going and sooner or later we’ll think of something amazing! And that day, my friend, might very well be today.
Phil: Alright, fine. What is this amazing idea that’s going to change people’s lives?
Roger: Okay, ready? You know how sometimes you’re packing your lunch and maybe for lunch you’re having, uhm, I don’t know, peas but also steak?
Phil: Steak?
Roger: Yeah, steak, I don’t know. Well, in that case you would have to pack both a fork and a spoon. Well, not anymore, not if you have a Foroon?
Phil: A Foroon?
Roger: Yeah, it’s part fork and part spoon! A Fornoon!
Phil: Oh, you mean a spork!
Roger: A spork? What the heck is a spork?
Phil: It’s a tool that’s part spoon and part fork. It already exists. I have one. It’s great. Super useful.
Roger: Oh, man!
Phil: Hey, don’t go away… Look at the bright side… At least this time it was a good idea!
Questions
Okay, that was a super long story, I'm aware. It's probably one of the longest that I've written, but I don't know, I just had so many things that I wanted to add to that story.
Slowly but surely
'I mean, we’re definitely making progress, slowly but surely…'
• If a situation changes slowly but surely, does it change overnight or gradually?
If a situation or something changes slowly but surely, it changes gradually, little by little, step by step. It's not like a complete change all of a sudden, no, it happens little by little, slowly but surely.
• Can you think of a time when you were making progress slowly but surely?
I think it might have been when I was trying to learn to play the guitar, I think the third time. I've tried a bunch of times, I think like four times in my life. The first time when I was 14-ish, then again when I was 20-something, and then when I was 24, 25, which was the time that I'm referring to, and then again a couple of years ago. I never had much luck, except for the third time because I had a really good teacher, and I was making progress. Slowly but surely, I was getting better. I was learning chords, but then I quit. Maybe I should give it another go.
You win some, you lose some
'Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It’s part of life.'
• What does the expression You win some, you lose some mean? That you will always succeed in life or that you will always fail in life?
Well, this is actually a trick question because it's neither. When you say you win some, you lose some, that means that sometimes in life, you will succeed, and some other times you will fail, so it's a bit of both. In life, you can't just succeed and you can't just fail. Sometimes you will succeed, and sometimes you will fail. That's part of life. That's what life is.
• When would you often use this expression? When trying to make someone feel better or worse?
When trying to make someone feel better or worse? You would definitely use this expression when trying to make someone feel better. Say maybe that they just lost a competition, or maybe they were doing a presentation and they did terribly. Well, in order to make them feel better, you want to give them some perspective, and so you're going to tell them, "Well, you know what? Life's not always going to be perfect. You win some, you lose some. Maybe some other times you did great. Today, not so great, but in the future, you're going to have other bright moments, you know what I mean?" It's about looking at life from a different perspective, and not just focusing on whatever bad thing happened, but looking at both the positives and the negatives. You win some, you lose some.
• When was the last time you thought “You win some, you lose some”?
I think the last time that I thought that was probably a week ago, because-- This project that I mentioned in the intro is, basically what I have to do is I have to shoot 52 videos, 52 lessons, and I had to start over so many times. I had to reshoot the same thing so many times because every time that I tried to do it, there was always something wrong. It was either my hair or the microphone wasn't working properly, or it was the light. It was always something. The last time, about a week ago, I finally I was done shooting. I had just finished recording my 52nd lesson, and I started watching the footage, and I realized that about 15 of those 52 lessons, I couldn't use them because the footage was too blurry. I don't know what happened to my camera, but there was no way I could salvage those. I realized that I had to redo those 15 lessons. At that time, after a little bit of a breakdown, I'm not going to lie, I thought at least it's not all of them, and I thought you win some, you lose some. It can't always be perfect. Sometimes things are going to go your way, and sometimes not so much. I guess that made me feel a little bit better about it, but anyway, let's just talk about something else because this is making me upset again.
Go in circles
'We’re going in circles.'
• If you’re going in circles, are you making progress or not?
No, if you're going in circles, well, just picture it. You start from point A, and then you go in a circle, and then you go back to point A, so no, you're not making progress.
• If you’re going in circles, do you keep facing new problems or always the same problems?
If you're going in circles, you keep facing the same problems over and over again. It can be very frustrating when you have this feeling of going in circles and you keep encountering the same difficulties. It's no fun.
• Can you think of a time when you thought you were going in circles?
Maybe. Well, I think in a lot of relationships, towards the end of relationship, when you're about to break up, you feel like you're going in circles, just because you might feel like you keep having the same conversations, you keep having the same arguments, and you really, you can't find a way to move on from those. I think what happens in a lot of relationships is that towards the end, you feel like you're going in circles, and then you get to a point where you're like, okay, we're obviously never going to move past this, we're never going to be able to solve this issue that we have, and so two people might decide to break up.
Come a long way
'You don’t see it, do you?! We’ve come such a long way...'
• If someone or something has come a long way, does that mean they have changed or not?
Yes, if someone or something has come a long way, that means that they have changed.
• And if they have come a long way, does that mean they have changed for the better or for the worse?
If someone or something has come a long way, that means that they have changed for the better, meaning they have become better, they're better people or the situation has gotten better, so to come a long way means to improve, basically.
• If someone or something has come a long, have they changed a lot compared to the past or not?
Yes, you've got the word long in it, meaning, yes, you've grown a lot, you've made a big improvement. If you've come a long way, yes, you have changed a lot compared to the past.
• Who do you think is someone who’s come a long way? In what regard?
The first person that comes to mind would be my mom, just because she used to not be able to handle discussions very well. She would often, she still does have a little bit, but what she used to do is she would just shut down and she wouldn't even reply to you, which was something I remember as a kid very, very frustrating for me. Over time, I think she realized how hurtful that behavior was. Although it wasn't easy for her, I think also me pointing that out to her, and showing her that there were alternatives to that type of response, I think that she really started to change. I think she has come a long way compared to when I was a teenager.
Sooner or later
'We just need to keep going and sooner or later we’ll think of something amazing...'
• If you say something is going to happen sooner or later, does that mean you think something will never happen or that it will definitely happen?
If you say sooner or later, this is going to happen, that means that you think that thing will definitely happen, you have no doubts about it.
• If you think something is going to happen sooner or later, does that mean you know exactly when that will happen?
Now, it's going to happen sooner or later, maybe tomorrow, maybe in three days, or maybe in three years, I don't know. We don't know when something is going to happen when we say sooner or later this will happen. We just say at some point in the future it will happen, although we don't know exactly when.
• What do you think is something that will happen sooner or later?
I think that sooner or later, I will go back to the States. The last time that I was there, it was probably, I want to say six years ago, which is a long time. I miss it, I do. I miss being surrounded by the language, and being surrounded by the culture. I definitely think. I don't know when. I need to definitely be more financially stable for that to happen, for me to plan a big trip like that. Hopefully, in the near future, it's going to happen, but, yes, definitely sooner or later, I'm going to go back.
[mepr-active rule=”1521″ ifallowed=”hide”]
Join the Community and access the FULL transcript (Questions + Answers).
[/mepr-active]
[mepr-active rule=”1520″ ifallowed=”hide”]
[mepr-login-form]
[/mepr-active]
