Under the category, “probably not actually from Aesop”.
Hercules comes across a man with his cart in a ditch. The man is standing in the road, he asks Hercules for help. Hercules tells the man to get into the ditch, get his shoulder on the cart, push, and then ask for help.
Don’t ask for help unless you’ve put some minimal effort into understanding the problem and trying to fix it yourself.
Unfortunately there is art to knowing when one should not get in the ditch and try and instead leave it to an expert.
Home electrical is one such murky area, for example. Replacing a bulb? Get in the metaphorical ditch. Installing a fusebox? Call an expert. This much is clear. Replacing a light switch? Ah. Now there’s a problem.
Which is where “minimal effort to understand the problem” comes in.
Also, paying for professional services like an electrician is not the same as “asking for help” in the context of this story. The dude wasn’t on the road offering Hercules a bag of coins to get the cart out of the ditch.
Under the category, “probably not actually from Aesop”.
Hercules comes across a man with his cart in a ditch. The man is standing in the road, he asks Hercules for help. Hercules tells the man to get into the ditch, get his shoulder on the cart, push, and then ask for help.
Don’t ask for help unless you’ve put some minimal effort into understanding the problem and trying to fix it yourself.
Unfortunately there is art to knowing when one should not get in the ditch and try and instead leave it to an expert.
Home electrical is one such murky area, for example. Replacing a bulb? Get in the metaphorical ditch. Installing a fusebox? Call an expert. This much is clear. Replacing a light switch? Ah. Now there’s a problem.
Which is where “minimal effort to understand the problem” comes in.
Also, paying for professional services like an electrician is not the same as “asking for help” in the context of this story. The dude wasn’t on the road offering Hercules a bag of coins to get the cart out of the ditch.