Doing the same thing over and over again will not yield different results

One of my wife's favorite shows is the Bachelor/Bachelorette. For anyone not familiar with the show, I envy you. I won't even bother explaining the premise of the show to spare you the pain.

Connor Child

The most recent season of the Bachelorette just came to a close, and (Spoiler Alert!) Ashley the Dentist selected a man named J.P. as the man she would like to temporarily be engaged to. Past experience with these types of "reality" TV shows says that the odds of those two actually tying the knot someday are about the same as a 75 degree February day in Logan. It's a mortal lock that Us Weekly will have a cover story in October with a melancholy picture of Ashley and a caption that says, "'Heartbroken' Ashley finally tells her side of the story."

If my wife ever goes insane, I'm blaming this show. Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. He may as well have been talking about this show. Every season, millions of people (mostly women) invest an inordinate amount of time and emotion into hoping that an attractive bachelor/bachelorette finds the person of his/her dreams and has a fairytale wedding and marriage. My numbers may be a little off, but I think the show has yielded someting like one marriage out of 4,342 attempts. When Ashley and J.P. inevitably break up in a couple months, my wife and millions of other people will be heartbroken and one step closer to insanity.

Einstein's definition of insanity applies to more than just fans of terrible TV shows. As students, we can learn a great deal from it. It's not uncommon to find students and recent graduates who are frustrated with the lack of results that comes from what they are doing. I believe that it's crucial for us to tweak our formulas and try new things if we want differnt results. With the school year rapidly approaching, I hope that each of us looks for opportunities to broaden our perspectives and open our eyes. It's not enough to work our part-time jobs and get passing grades. Join a club, sign up for a study abroad, work with a professor on a research project or attend the dean's convocations. Additionally, there are several other opportunities the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business has afforded us so that we can try new things. It's only after we do this that we can begin to "Dare Mighty Things."

Connor Child