Why do we start with a fishing pole?

[Tonkyhonk]

I think we get a fishing pole because of Lao Tzu's - "Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Give Man a Fishing Pole, Feed Him For a Lifetime". That's translated from Polish version, In English-speaking world this quotation is slightly different. I found a Swedish version which is similar to Polish one.

BTW for Polish speaking people - try to translate this with google translator:
"Om du ger en man en fisk kan du stilla hans hunger. Om du ger honom ett nät kan han fiska när han vill"
The result is like:
"If you give a man a fish, you can satisfy his hunger. If you give him the Internet, he can go fishing when he wants"

This is just a note for proverb-freaks.
The most well-known original English text is probably as follows;
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
If the original text is really from Lao Tzu, the well-known original text in Chinese is ;
"授人以魚，不如授之以漁，授人以魚只救一時之及，授人以漁則可解一生之需"
So it is not actually a fishing pole, but the knowledge of how to fish that the saying suggested.

I said "IF" because some people say the original was from Jewish proverb with cat, some say from Southeast Asia, some (but many) say from China and I have no idea which is right. I have not yet seen someone showing where exactly the line is in Lao Tzu's existing texts.


my personal opinion on this is that i kinda like the idea of spawning with a fishing pole. that gave me a small goal of finding out what i am supposed to do on this game, though it was really frustrating.

[niltrias]

"授人以魚，不如授之以漁，授人以魚只救一時之及，授人以漁則可解一生之需"

gah how can you read that?

it's like..recieve-person-from here-fish, not addition take from here-fishing, reciever from-fish greater- accept one time and-receiver from fishing-something-+aleph untie- in one life- I give up.

My tongue is firmly in cheek.

[Thurrok]

"Give a man a fish, it is better to teach him to fish, delegate to the fish and save the moment, giving the fishing life may be the need of solutions"

Babelfish ftw.

I have no idea what I just read. It is rather funny though.

[Tonkyhonk]

"授人以魚，不如授之以漁，授人以魚只救一時之及，授人以漁則可解一生之需"

gah how can you read that?

it's like..recieve-person-from here-fish, not addition take from here-fishing, reciever from-fish greater- accept one time and-receiver from fishing-something-+aleph untie- in one life- I give up.

My tongue is firmly in cheek.

"Give a man a fish, it is better to teach him to fish, delegate to the fish and save the moment, giving the fishing life may be the need of solutions"

Babelfish ftw.

I have no idea what I just read. It is rather funny though.

do you guys really want me to start up on this?

授人以魚= giving a man a fish / give-person-(a kind of particle meaning "by", "with" or "using")- fish
不如授之以漁= not as good as giving(teaching) him fishing / not-equal-giving-him-(particle)-fishing
授人以魚只救一時之及= giving a man a fish means saving him only for the time being
授人以漁則可解一生之需= giving(teaching) a man fishing means making him solve (his) life time demand

授 does often mean "receive", but here it means giving/teaching in the text and we read it as さずける instead, such as 授業(class = giving lessons). yep, we all learn some classic Chinese at school in Japan although it doesnt mean we understand modern Chinese.
didnt break up the last two phrases cause it can be quite confusing to the most. if you still wanna know, pm me

[KajetanChrumps]

I believe Tonkyhonk's translation is rather close to the original because he can read the, um.., original text and he belongs to a similar culture as the author.
I want to point out however that some translations mentioning a "fishing tool" exist, no matter they are accurate or not, and such versions could be a reason to give a fishing pole to all new chars. It can be also a kind of joke and/or puzzle as well.
I hope at some point devs enlighten us what was their idea.

[niltrias]

Oh, I absolutely believe Tonkyhonk's translation was perfect. I was just joking around a bit about the difference between the use of Kanji in chinese and japanese. I think I made it perfectly clear that I was joking in my original post.
Edit: actually, if you look closely at my fake translation, you can see that I was fairly close. I was being a bit vague on purpose.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

[sabinati]

well, for some history, the starter fishing rod used to be fully equiped, because the parts did not break or have interchangeability, it was just one item made by branch, string and bone. i don't even think you needed any bait ever. there were no lures. there was also only perch, and all you could do with it was roast it, and you had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to get to the lake, and we liked it. (we didn't really like it, fishing was terribly uninteresting and the addition of complexity to fishing was quite welcome and needed). anyway they probably left it in because they were lazy.

[Tonkyhonk]

I want to point out however that some translations mentioning a "fishing tool" exist, no matter they are accurate or not

ah yes, of course! that is the very reason why i said "If the original text is really from Lao Tzu" and mentioned about the different opinions on its origin, thus it was just a note for proverb-freaks. he he.
i would have liked to take it as a neat puzzle J&L gave us, but i guess it was a bit too farfetched, after reading what sabinati wrote above.
(by the way, im "she", not "he" not like it matters, but just saying.)

I was being a bit vague on purpose.

sure, Mr Sapir is always checking up on how accurate my translation goes

[KajetanChrumps]

(by the way, im "she", not "he" not like it matters, but just saying.)

Oops, sorry.

[supercharazard]

I think we get a fishing pole because of Lao Tzu's - "Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Give Man a Fishing Pole, Feed Him For a Lifetime". That's translated from Polish version, In English-speaking world this quotation is slightly different. I found a Swedish version which is similar to Polish one.

BTW for Polish speaking people - try to translate this with google translator:
"Om du ger en man en fisk kan du stilla hans hunger. Om du ger honom ett nät kan han fiska när han vill"
The result is like:
"If you give a man a fish, you can satisfy his hunger. If you give him the Internet, he can go fishing when he wants"

With google translate, it's "If you give a man a fish, you can satisfy his hunger. If you give him a net, he can go fishing when he wants"