Catch Fish, Forget the Trap
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Catch fish, forget the trap comes from Zhuangzi, where the trap is a tool for catching fish and words are tools for conveying meaning, so both can be set aside once their purpose is served. The core proposition is that procedures, documents and meetings are instruments aimed at business outcomes, and that maintaining an instrument after the outcome is achieved substitutes form for purpose. The key qualification is that the tool is discarded only after the result is secured, since removing necessary instruments before they have done their work produces loss of control rather than efficiency.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Name The Fish: state the business outcome the procedure exists to produce. - Retire The Trap: remove the tool once the outcome is reliably achieved without it. - Audit The Ritual: check regularly whether a process has become its own purpose.
Anchor fast decisions
A procedure persists because it once solved a problem, and its persistence is not evidence that the problem still exists. Keeping the procedure consumes attention and constrains how work can be done, so its cost continues even after its benefit stops. Removing it returns that capacity to the work the procedure was meant to serve, which is why the tool should be evaluated against the outcome rather than against tradition.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BA%84%E5%AD%90verified
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