The male monkey and the female monkey have an argument

By Paulo Coelho


The male monkey and the female monkey were sitting on the branch of a tree watching the sunset. At one point, she said:

‘What makes the sky change colour when the sun reaches the horizon?’

‘If we tried to explain everything, we wouldn’t be able to live,’ replied the male monkey.

‘Just sit quietly and let this romantic sunset fill our hearts with gladness.’

The female monkey grew angry.

‘You’re so primitive and superstitious. You’re not interested in logic any more, you just want to enjoy life.’

At that moment, a centipede happened to be walking past.

‘Centipede!’ called the male monkey. ‘How do you manage to move all those legs of yours in such perfect harmony?’

‘I’ve never really thought about it,’ came the reply.

‘Well, think about it! My wife would like an explanation!’

The centipede looked at its legs and began:

‘Well…first I move this muscle, no, no I don’t, first, I have to sway my body in this direction…’

The centipede spent half an hour trying to explain how it moved its legs, and the harder it tried, the more confused it became. Wanting to continue on its way, it found it could no longer walk.

‘See what you’ve done?’ it cried out in despair. ‘In my eagerness to explain how I work, I’ve forgotten how to move.’

‘Now do you see what happens when someone tries to explain everything?’ said the male monkey, turning to enjoy the sunset in silence.

Policies and Procedures

In this experiment they put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.

Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.

Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.

One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious, but, undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

A second original monkey is removed and replaced.

The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.

This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it.

However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.

One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced, eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder.

All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

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AND THAT'S HOW VERY MANY COMPANY POLICIES & PROCEDURES GET ESTABLISHED.