Skimming over the surface can't solve the fundamental problem

Skimming over the surface can't solve the fundamental problem

Story Summary

A fable about treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

Once upon a time, there was a small village, and in the village, there was a very large pot. This pot was used by everyone to cook things, such as cooking some wild vegetable soup and other foods. One day, an old man in the village was in charge of cooking wild vegetable soup. He added a lot of firewood under the stove, and the fire was very strong.

The old man is worried while facing the pot

The old man added firewood to the stove while looking at the wild vegetable soup in the pot. Suddenly, he noticed that because the fire was too strong, the soup in the pot was boiling extremely vigorously and was about to spill over. The old man was very worried. He didn't want the soup to spill out and be wasted. After all, these wild vegetables were not easy to collect. However, instead of thinking of removing some of the firewood to reduce the fire, he picked up a large ladle and kept scooping up the boiling soup in the pot and pouring it back. He thought that by doing this, the soup would no longer boil so vigorously.

The old man keeps scooping the soup

But his actions had no effect. Although he kept scooping the soup, the soup in the pot still kept boiling, and because of his stirring, some soup would splash out from time to time. The old man was sweating all over his head, but he still refused to stop. He thought that as long as he continued scooping the soup, he would surely make the soup stop boiling so vigorously. A little child nearby saw the old man doing this and thought it was very strange.

The little child gives advice to the old man

The little child said to the old man, "Uncle, what you are doing is useless. Look, the firewood below is still burning so strongly. You are just scooping the soup on the surface back and forth. It's like trying to stop the water from boiling without solving the problem at the root. You should remove some of the firewood. In this way, when the fire gets smaller, the soup will naturally not boil so vigorously." Hearing the little child's words, the old man suddenly realized.

The old man removes the firewood

The old man quickly removed some of the firewood from the stove. The fire gradually became smaller, and the soup in the pot no longer boiled crazily. Looking at the soup in the pot and then at the clever little child beside him, the old man said with a smile, "Child, you are so clever. Uncle only thought of making the soup stop boiling temporarily, but didn't think of solving the problem from the root. This tells us that if we only deal with the superficial problems when doing things, instead of solving the fundamental reasons, it is very difficult to really do things well." Since then, the old man has remembered this lesson, and this story has also spread in the village, making everyone know the truth that we should deal with the root of the problem when doing things.