Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1051IR // #c1051Synthesis

"I at length refus'd to play any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every game should have a right to impose a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquish'd was to perform upon honour, before our next meeting. As we play'd pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language."

— In our words · Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Benjamin Franklin)

[Use when]

A habit you enjoy is eating the time meant for something you need to learn.

[Why it matters]

Chess was eating the time he and a friend had set aside for Italian. He kept the game and made the loser pay in study.

More from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

#c1038"I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking…You want to learn a craft from a master's work and reading it again isn't teaching you anything. #c1039"I was charm'd with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter."…Your questions keep winning arguments and people have started refusing to answer them. #c1040"I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own." "in answering I…You are right on the substance and still losing the room.