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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007best result possible vs. best possible result
In a book about Bridge I found this advice: 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible result.' ?? I guess one is abstract, and the other is relative, but which one is which ? Thanks in advance for any replies. Cheers, Ulrike > In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best > possible result.' > ?? I guess one is abstract, and the other is relative, but which > one is which ? The first one means that you shouldn't always play to make a grand slam, which is the best result possible in bridge. The second one means that you should play for the best result you can hope for given the cards you have been dealt. They're both quite concrete.  SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. "It has come to my attention that my opinions are not universally shared." Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog, 23 Jan 2007; http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/ teranews charges a one-time US$3.95 setup fee -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible result.' > ?? I guess one is abstract, and the other is relative, but which one is which ? Bridge is such a boring card game. No drinking whiskey, no bluffing, no poker face, no six-shooter under a table and no using your clothes as a bet. "Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible result." Neither abstract nor relative. This is a personal parable, "Play to win." If you are losing, shoot the other players with your Wild West Colt six-shooter, then put your clothes back on, collect your winnings and run like crazy. Should there be others around, still standing and having a gun, you might want to grab your clothes, your winnings, then run. You can dress later. Purl Gurl >> In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > bluffing, no poker face, no six-shooter under a table and no using > your clothes as a bet. What? You've never played strip bridge? SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. "It has come to my attention that my opinions are not universally shared." Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog, 23 Jan 2007; http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/ teranews charges a one-time US$3.95 setup fee -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com >> windlicht wrote: >> Bridge is such a boring card game. No drinking whiskey, no >> bluffing, no poker face, no six-shooter under a table and no using >> your clothes as a bet. > What? You've never played strip bridge? Ha! Ha! No, I have never played strip bridge! However, I have stripped and played under a bridge, many times, very many times. There is, for you, a nice lead for troll jokes. When we have close friends over for strip poker, I always wear a T-shirt, shorts and ten pairs of socks. T-shirt for ante, shorts for a bet, then I am good to play! I am smart, I never run out of betting clothes! Want to see pictures? Ha! Purl Gurl Purl Gurl filted: >>'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible result.' > >Bridge is such a boring card game. No drinking whiskey, no bluffing, no poker >face, >no six-shooter under a table and no using your clothes as a bet. But you can do chiasmus up the wazoo.... I've seen a couple of examples where this sort of thing is both clever and enlightening ("humorists say funny things; comedians say things funny" or "Celebrity Skin prints photos of naked celebrities; Celebrity Sleuth prints photos of celebrities naked")...the bridge example manages only the "clever" half of the equation....r Signature"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!" "You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!" > Purl Gurl filted: >> Bridge is such a boring card game. No drinking whiskey, no >> bluffing, no poker face, no six-shooter under a table and no using >> your clothes as a bet. The problem with strip bridge is that so many bridge enthusiasts turn out to be the sort of people you'd rather not see naked. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. > In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible > result.' > ?? I guess one is abstract, and the other is relative, but which one > is which ? I think the writer of your book is trying to sound clever, and rates that as more important than communicating with the reader. However, I'll try to guess what is meant. I think "the the best result possible" is the best result that an expert player could get with all the uncertainties turning out for the best, whereas "the best possible result" is the best that a reader at the level of skill appropriate for reading the book could reasonably hope to achieve. athel Thank you both for your quick response ! So I understand there's no difference between constructions like 'the highest tower possible' or 'the highest possible tower', or at least no obvious one. LOL @ your comments about Bridge ;) Ulrike > Thank you both for your quick response ! > So I understand there's no difference between constructions like 'the > highest tower possible' or 'the highest possible tower', or at least > no obvious one. LOL @ your comments about Bridge ;) Athel provides a better explanation than mine. "Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible result." "Don't play for the best result possible...." Author is suggesting to not allow your skill level to determine an outcome of a given hand; play beyond your skill level, push the envelope. "...play for the best possible result." Play to win, play beyond your skill level, take risks, push your personal limits. Overall, the author is writing, paraphrased, "Do not limit yourself." His parable is neither abstract nor relative. His falls into an advice column. His wording is a bit hard to follow, which would lead to questioning if his parable, or parts of his parable, is or are abstract; a bit confusing. I have discovered losing my blouse during the first few hands, is a winning strategy. Such a distraction tends to keep a male mind off the card game and on another game. Purl Gurl > In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible > result.' > ?? I guess one is abstract, and the other is relative, but which one > is which ? It looks as if the writer is distingushing between: best result possible = best result imaginable; best possible result = best result suggested by this particular deal of the cards. No general principles of the language mandate this interpretation (but bridge jargon may make various not found in common English.) We may consider that probably few authors of books about bridge may be considered professional writers. SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) On Jan 29, 5:24 pm, "Don Phillipson" <d.phillipsonSPAMBL...@ncf.ca> wrote: >We may consider > that probably few authors of books about bridge > may be considered professional writers. True, which is one reason why they would be wise to aim for clarity rather than stylishness. Nonetheless, I can think of two writers about bridge who are or were excellent writers per se. One is the Guardian's current bridge correspondent, Zia Mahmood, and the other was his predecessor, the late Trixie Marcus. In both cases I enjoy their columns because they manage to make a game I am not otherwise interested in sound exciting. (There is nothing new under the sun: while googling to check something about Trixie Marcus, I was surprised to see that I had said much the same thing in 2004, when we were discussing which games were the most unwatchable, cricket being a favourite choice.) I don't know how many books either has written, but in any case a writer of a regular column in a newspaper is more of a professional writer than the author of a single book. athel >> In a book about Bridge I found this advice: >> 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > that probably few authors of books about bridge > may be considered professional writers. To me, the two phrases have near as damn the same meaning. "Best result possible" has to take into account the particular deal of the cards, just as much as the other formulation does. It seems to me that if it had been a distinction between "possible best result" and "best possible result" it would have been better stated. The first emphasizes *possible* in a way that allows "(though implausible)" to be understood. The second aims for the best of all the possible-results for that hand. Though I don't know that "Don't play for a possible best result" exactly parallels "play for the best possible result", and I'm not sure "play for *the* possible best result" plays well, either. So maybe it should (for some value of "should") be "Don't play for a possible best result, play for a best possible result." Signaturerzed >In a book about Bridge I found this advice: >'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >Thanks in advance for any replies. >Cheers, Ulrike Best Possible Result - The best result anybody could ever achieve. Best result possible - as good as could be expected, bearing in mind the bad weather, noisy neighbours, lack of practical experience and that annoying hangover... > In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Cheers, > Ulrike It sounds like a version of "the best is the enemy of the good". "best result possible" would imply the best highest score theoretically possible. "best possible result" would imply a result that is feasible with the cards and perhaps, partner, that you have. > In a book about Bridge I found this advice: > 'Don't play for the best result possible - play for the best possible [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Cheers, > Ulrike 'best result possible' here is relative. That is: It means the best result which is possible considering the circumstances of the concerned party. 'the best possible result' is of course absolute and objective(it is the same for everybody) which is a win.(I don't think 'abstract' is another word for 'absolute' or 'objective') |
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