OT - Stone Soup (was Re: Does Ubuntu need a "Getting Started" page?)

[Scott Kitterman]

On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 03:00:48 -0400 John Richard Moser 
<nigelenki at comcast.net> wrote:
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>Scott Kitterman wrote:
>> On Sunday 30 July 2006 01:14, John Richard Moser wrote:
>>> Scott Kitterman wrote:
>> 
>>>> Ever heard the story of stone soup?
>>> No, wtf?  That sounds lame, I can't eat rocks.
>>>
>> Here is a short version:
>> 
>> http://stonesoup.esd.ornl.gov/stonesoup.html
>> 
>
>Right.  So use something worthless to coax people into giving you stuff
>they need and doing all your work for you.  Got it.
>
>(Actually that doesn't work; you have to use something that's worth
>putting effort into, or else peoples' minds will reject it as a waste of
>time.  Of course, you don't need a real workable product; your actions
>can make people think there's some sort of stability in the effort and
>so their contributions won't be lost to an idea that piddles out into
>nothing.  Play it right and you really don't have to do ANY work...)
>
I suppose that's one way to look at it.  I've always thought of it 
differently.  Yes, the soldier did trick the villagers, but what he mostly 
did was to trick them into working togeher.

It took someone starting the project and coaxing the villagers into making 
their own small contribution.  The end result was something better than any 
of them could have done alone.

If there is a moral to the story, I always thought it was a plea against 
hording in times of famine.

Scott K