“Try not! Do… or do not. There is no try.”

From: Star Wars

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Yoda

The story behind the quote: Probably one of the most popular quotes in the entire history of geekdom. In the Empire Strikes Back, Luke travels to the planet Dagobah to find the last living Jedi, Yoda, to train him in using the Force. During one of the training sessions, R2-D2 alerts Luke that his X-Wing (basically his spaceship) is sinking into the swamp. Luke laments that the ship is stuck too deep in the bog. The aged Jedi Master tells him to use the Force to raise the ship but Luke says its impossible since its too big.

Yoda rebukes this and says that its only impossible since he thinks its impossible. The young apprentice says that he’ll try but this only makes Yoda more adamant, saying that either he does it or he doesn’t. When Luke fails and claims that it was too heavy, Yoda then shows the young Skywalker that it is possible by doing it himself.

Geek wisdom: This is pretty self-explanatory. When most people say that they’ll try something, they’re almost always thinking that they’ll do it to show that its impossible. In their mind, they’ve already failed. Because of this, they don’t really give their best effort to accomplish the task.

I’ll be the first to admit that I do have a pessimistic attitude when it comes to a lot of things, but I always make sure to do my best in the things I plan to do. This is because of the advice I got from a puppet that lives on a planet a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Thanks, Yoda!

Author: Victor de la Cruz

Most of my childhood (and adult life) was spent doing a lot of geeky stuff: watching TV, playing video games and going to the movies. To some, it may have been a waste of time. Well, to me, it has made me what I am today... a geeky adult. I actually write for a couple of blogs, namely: geekwisdom.wordpress.com 3rdworldgeeks.com gamemoir.com Please check them out! View all posts by Victor de la Cruz