[alexandercrohde]

>> In your example, try and try again does NOT mean try and try the SAME thing again.

Who says? For surfing, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again" may seem to apply. And maybe you get on the board again and nail it. Or maybe you get on the board and get a concussion.

Because aphorisms are just very reductive phrases they contain almost no data. I contrast this with a sentence that has a ton of signal "The average human pregnancy lasts 9 months."

>> don't break your head against a brick wall is usually used in the context of trying to change someone else

I'm not aware of it being specific to the context of people. I think you added, that, which actually makes it closer to what I'm saying, because it's more specific. For a heuristic to be good, it needs to have a clear domain of when it applies and when it doesn't. Otherwise you've just got a box of fortune-cookies and no idea which ones apply.

[kd5bjo]

Adages aren’t really meant to be informational; they’re memory triggers. The phrase “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again” invites comparison between your present situation and prior experiences when you struggled to learn a skill.

Other adages work similarly: they connect disparate memories together based on some abstract similarity and provide a hook that can be used to recall them.

[imheretolearn]

> For a heuristic to be good, it needs to have a clear domain of when it applies and when it doesn't.

I see your point. I believe both of us are saying the same thing albeit using different words. In this case, the domain would be the context in which the aphorism is used, which is exactly what the 3rd point in my parent comment says. As with everything, the context is equally important. When you take anything out of context, there is a high probability that it won't hold. Simply stating an aphorism, without understanding the context is only half knowledge and not actionable which inadvertently reduces the signal.