Editing Analysis paralysis (section)

==History==
The basic idea has been expressed through narrative a number of times. In one "[[Aesop's Fables|Aesop's fable]]" that is recorded even before [[Aesop]]'s time, [[The Fox and the Cat (fable)|The Fox and the Cat]], the fox boasts of "hundreds of ways of escaping" while the cat has "only one". When they hear the hounds approaching, the cat scampers up a tree while "the fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds". The fable ends with the moral, "Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon". Related concepts are expressed by the [[Centipede's dilemma]], how unconscious activity is disrupted by conscious thought of it, and by the tale of [[Buridan's ass]], a paradox of rational decision-making with equal options.

In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'', the main character, [[Prince Hamlet]], is often said to have a mortal flaw of thinking too much, such that his youth and vital energy are "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought".<ref name="SRC-Line">{{cite web|title=Shakespeare Resource Center - Line Analysis: Hamlet|url=http://www.bardweb.net/content/readings/hamlet/lines.html|website=www.bardweb.net}}</ref> [[Neema Parvini]] explores some of Hamlet's key decisions in the chapter {{"'}}And Reason Panders Will': Another Look at Hamlet's Analysis Paralysis".<ref name="Parvini">{{cite book|last1=Parvini|first1=Neema|title=Shakespeare and Cognition: Thinking Fast and Slow through Character|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=9781349713080|pages=52–62|language=en|chapter='And Reason Panders Will': Another Look at Hamlet's Analysis Paralysis|doi=10.1057/9781137543165_5|year=2015}}</ref>

[[Voltaire]] popularized an old Italian proverb in French in the 1770s, of which an English variant is, "[[Perfect is the enemy of good]]". The meaning of "The perfect is the enemy of the good" is that one might never complete a task if one has decided not to stop until it is perfect: completing the project well is made impossible by striving to complete it perfectly.

"Analysis, paralysis" appeared together in an 1803 pronouncing dictionary and later editions stating how those words are pronounced similarly.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PzVWAAAAYAAJ&q=Analysis%20paralysis&pg=PP116|title=A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language...: To which are Prefixed, Principles of English Pronunciation...|last=Walker|first=John|date=1803|publisher=Budd and Bartram|language=en}}</ref> The usage of rhyming words can make [[aphorisms]] sound more truthful and be more memorable by their usage of the [[rhyme-as-reason effect]] and [[Mnemonic#Types|ode mnemonics]].

In 1928 at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Reverend C. Leslie Glenn, National Secretary for College Work, spoke that the religious collegiate world was at risk of "paralysis by analysis" from being too speculative instead of definitive, needing real work instead of investigations.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7vSAAAAMAAJ&q=%22paralysis+of+analysis%22|title=The Spirit of Missions|date=1928|publisher=J. L. Powell|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiBXAAAAYAAJ&q=%22the+collegiate+world+was+suffering+from+a+paralysis+by+analysis|title=Christian Education|date=1928|publisher=Council of Church Boards of Education in the United States of America|language=en}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], [[Winston Churchill]], after hearing that the [[landing craft]] designers were spending the majority of their time arguing over design changes, sent this message: "The maxim 'Nothing avails but perfection' may be spelt shorter: 'Paralysis.{{' "}}<ref name="Roberts">{{cite journal|last1=Roberts |first1=Lon |title=Analysis Paralysis: A Case of Terminological Inexactitude |journal=Defense AT&L |date=January–February 2010 |pages=18–22 |url=https://www.dau.mil/library/defense-atl/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/library/defense-atl/DATLFiles/Jan-Feb/robersts_jan-feb10.pdf&action=default |access-date=13 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122195255/http://www.dau.mil/pubscats/ATL%20Docs/Jan-Feb/robersts_jan-feb10.pdf |archive-date=22 November 2016 }}</ref>

In 1956, Charles R. Schwartz wrote the article "The Return-on-Investment Concept as a Tool for Decision Making" in Changing Patterns And Concepts In Management stating, "We will do less guessing; avoid the danger of becoming extinct by instinct; and, by the adoption of one uniform evaluation guide, escape succumbing to paralysis by analysis."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schwartz|first=Charles R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NpPAQAAIAAJ&q=%22extinct+by+instinct%22+%22paralysis+by+analysis%22|title=General Management Series Pamphlet #183: The Return-on-Investment Concept as a Tool for Decision Making|pages=42–61|date=1956|publisher=American Management Association|language=en}}</ref>

In 1965, [[Igor Ansoff|H. Igor Ansoff]] wrote the book ''Corporate Strategy: An Analytic Approach to Business Policy for Growth and Expansion''.<ref name="Ansoff">{{cite book|last1=Ansoff|first1=H. Igor|title=Corporate Strategy: an Analytic Approach to Business Policy for Growth and Expansion|url=https://archive.org/details/corporatestrateg0000anso|url-access=registration|date=1965|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York|isbn=9780070021112}}</ref> He used the phrase "paralysis by analysis" in reference to those who used the approach to excess.<ref name="Kennedy">{{cite book|last1=Kennedy|first1=Carol|title=Guide to the management gurus : the best guide to business thinkers|date=2006|publisher=Random House Business|location=London|isbn=978-1905211029|edition=5th}}</ref><ref name="Economist">{{cite news|title=Igor Ansoff|url=http://www.economist.com/node/11701586|newspaper=The Economist|date=18 July 2008}}</ref> Ansoff had referenced Schwartz's paper in a couple of his papers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ansoff|first=H. I.|date=July 1958|title=A Model for Diversification|journal=Manag. Sci.|volume=4|issue=4|pages=392–414|doi=10.1287/mnsc.4.4.392|issn=0025-1909}}</ref>

In a paper published in 1970, based on a speech in 1969 and other works, Silver and Hecker wrote:
{{blockquote|The Duke group has used the term "analysis-paralysis" to point out that, if we wait until we have completely answered all the questions and solved all of the problems before training the personnel we need, we will never reach a solution. The insistent demands for further study and extensive evaluation suggested by some may only be a defense by those who do not wish to change or those who fear change.<ref name="Silver&Hecker">{{cite journal|last1=Silver|first1=Henry K.|last2=Hecker|first2=James A.|title=The Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and the Health Associate: New Types of Health Professionals|journal=Journal of Medical Education|date=March 1970|volume=45|pages=171–176|url=http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Abstract/1970/03000/The_pediatric_nurse_practitioner_and_the_child.8.aspx|access-date=10 May 2016}}</ref>}}

The [[Oxford English Dictionary]] says that the earliest uses of "analysis paralysis" found in ''[[The Times]]'' were in the 1970s.<ref name="OED">{{cite web|title=analysis paralysis: definition of analysis paralysis in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/analysis-paralysis|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913011122/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/analysis-paralysis|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 13, 2015|website=Oxford Dictionaries|access-date=10 May 2016}}</ref>