So I am trying to tidy something up and get it ready to send off. And I am actually not getting this done, because the idea of revising is unnerving me greatly, to put it mildly. And as I often do in such circumstances, I turn to the light of my life, for his words of wisdom.
“What are you worried about?” he said.
“What if I make it worse and can’t tell?”
“Well,” he said in a cheer-up kind of voice, “it will probably get rejected by statistically the same number of people.”
(I confess there was something of a stunned pause on my part, here.)
“…boy,” I said in a slightly strangled voice, “are you lucky you took the knives and forks away.”
Still, you know. He’s… right, I guess? I mean, if I make it better, it will probably get rejected by fewer people. If I make it worse, it likely won’t actually get rejected by more.
I am fairly sure that I am missing something, but since I am more looking to get unstuck than I am looking for statistical analysis[1], at least I am achieving my primary goal. Cheers!
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[1] Which is fascinating, but often leaves me with that faintly bubbly feeling that I get when I have managed to (briefly) internalize the Monty Haul problem and the truth of the solution.