Managing when you can't totally solve

I once watched a respected college wrestler who clearly had an all-or-nothing approach.  He didn't spend much time riding his opponent in the typical way to accumulate points. Instead, he tried to pin him immediately and when he failed and the situation was moving into a protracted struggle, he would break off and basically start over.  It was a vigorous and maybe wasteful way to wrestle but it seemed like a clear plan and a somewhat heroic one.

I wouldn't be surprised if some day we find that putting up with a more partial method, one that is more gradual but less grand and dramatic, is the major difference between civilized and mature people and more youthful and naive methods.  There are, after all, many things that can be done in part but not permanently nor all at once.  I think I read once that people had to develop language and habits of greater calm and trust before they could live comfortably close together in a large city. I know I read, probably in Henry Petroski's The Evolution of Useful Things, that during the early days of tableware, people were reluctant to set the table with knives for fear they would be used as weapons in table arguments that escalated into fights.

In connection with handling situations with a lighter hand or a more tolerant approach, I often think of fishing with a light line.  I have only fished a couple of times in my life but I can picture working with the line to keep the fish hooked but not letting it get good tension on the line and snapping it.  I think some fishing is explicitly set up to be a contest of delicate touch and skill and timing to land a fish that could break the line if given the right chance. 

Same with my bank account.  There are sufficient possible expenses that could wipe me out if they all got piled up at once.  I need to manage my money, my time, my energy, my attention so that I can keep various parts of my life going without exhausting myself or my patience or letting important parts of my life go unattended for too long.

In philosophy of science, I read this lovely metaphor by Otto Neurath and it too reminds me of the greater achievements possible with flexibility and a patient approach:

"In fact, it was Quine, in Word and Object (p. 3f), who made famous Neurath's analogy which compares the holistic nature of language and consequently scientific verification with the construction of a boat which is already at sea:

"We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using the old beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped entirely anew, but only by gradual reconstruction.""