"Like Mopping the Floor while the Tap is On"
Originally published on X · Article · February 14, 2026
Have you heard of this idiom before?
I've first read this idiom, perhaps, the only time until now, when I was in high school. It was found in an article edition in a local Newspaper, 'Deccan Chronicle' in Hyderabad, India. My Dad used to get two daily English Newspapers, 'The Hindu' (a National Newspaper) and 'Deccan Chronicle' (a local Newspaper).
For those who do not know, 'Tap' is a British term for 'Faucet' in American term.
As intuitive and chuckling as the idiom sounds, it draws many contexts to apply an apt interpretation to any appropriate situation or condition.
In it's literal sense, it's a foolish effort to mop the floor while the Tap is running as you will never be able to mop it dry and be successful, assuming that's your end objective.
I've mentioned this phrase and written at length about a context and it's interpretation several months ago, in a Linkedin post, as it suited to the then conditions. - FYI
Some random connectors to keep at the back of your mind:
- A Principle is immune to bias factors.
- A fundamental conceptual framework is immune to dangerous risks stemming from inept subjective analyses.
Today, I'd like to share some ideas as a concept using this brilliant perspective, in two distinct conditional setup.
"Like Mopping the Floor while the Tap is On"
Conditional Setup I:
When you work on the effects of a problem (akin to 'mopping'), at hand, without understanding what's causing it (akin to 'while the Tap is On' ) - The Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
We will use conditional setup I as a sub-component of conditional setup II as that's how they are related to each other and better understood when such comprehensive draw is made.
Conditional Setup II:
Drawing the idea to a much higher dimensional state, as part of understanding the Universe, it's dynamic motion and explode the two facets of (a) Inward focus journey as an individual experiencing the Self and the Universe (b) For Universe underpinnings.
Some axioms to keep in mind:
- Universe's Evolution: (External to the individual): There's a sense of evolution (REAL phenomenon) that happens in the Universe, as a function of Time, state of collective consciousness and other shifts in the nature, cosmos.
Universe's Evolution f()
- 1 (a): People with their own states of consciousness interacting with the world via social, political, geological, economic and other factors bring a dynamic shift = collective consciousness.
- 1(b): There's a rate of change in the external world affairs due to events, incidents, shifts across the above said factors.
- 1(c): Evolutionary states in the external world need to be understood, as part of understanding the Universe. It's important to know what's subject to change, rate of change, change in what specific component.
Essentially, all of the above can be understood via scientific principles, fundamental of logical frameworks and concepts, Principles of ethicality, morality with objective reality and objectivity, root wisdom and universal grounding philosophies that govern the human psychology, nature and cosmos, as we understand as on date, while having the learning aptitude, intellectual humility that evolution is REAL and that intelligence has to adapt to it.
2. Individual's Evolution: (Inward focused one): There's a sense of evolution (REAL phenomenon) that happens in every individual human, as a function of Time and state of consciousness.
Individual Evolution = f(Time, State of Consciousness)
- 2 (a) State of consciousness is another function of personality traits, experiences, learnings gathering and applied, ability to grasp information and translating into an insight and more.
- 2(b) There's a sense of TRANSFORMATION (REAL phenomenon) in an individual. It's a function(time, learning, growth)
- 2(c) There's a Rate of Learning.
This implies, every individual has a rate of learning and is not comparable to any other individual. And, every individual has numerous sets of learning curriculum on various aspects of essential existence. These are not hard skill based subjects and the related learning but they are the wisdom that you gain due to your personalized experience of life, at large. - 2(d) There's a Rate of Growth.
This implies, every individual has a rate of growth and is not comparable to any other individual. Growth can be psychological, biological, mental, emotional, spiritual apart from the physical growth that happens from infancy to adulthood, in the mere physique and physicality of it.
Essentially, all of what we talk about neuroplasticity, rewiring the brain with newer experiences, newer perspectives, a lifepath pivotal shifts due to transformation, life altering events forcing you to change the course of actions, decisions, choices, career, hobbies, passions, finding a renewed purpose and all, are factored into the rates of Learning, rates of Growth.
3. NO TWO people's rates of learning and rates of growth are comparable.
It implies that, in a given period of time, let's say, in the last 2 years, it's possible for some folks to have grown in Quantum leaps and bounds, their evolution, transformation that is far steeper than the rest of the folks in the same and common physical world conditions around. Comparison of personal growth and evolution to any others, is an element of ignorance.
4. An Individual's truth of existence is the ONLY SOURCE OF THE TRUTH for one's own life. Meaning, no one external to an individual has the right or authority to confirm the true identity of the other, based on others' perceptions.
This particular kind of personal truth of existence must be sought after with methodical approach, analyses, a set of questionnaire, behavioral patterns, transformative shifts as can be evident in any objective parametric measures and ultimately need to be tallied with the individual in assessment.
This is an element of intrinsic freedom to exist, everyone is born with. There's no external sense of safety to an individual who is ought to live with that feature. A failing is a lacking on the ones who can't live in their own freedom but not a ding on the ones who live in their freedom. It's important to know the nuances, finer principles without which everything looks the same.
Alright... now, what about our idiom!!
When we each try to make sense of the world around us, we perceive the facts, events, incidents, information based on our mind's energy.
And, based on all the mental makeup, setup that one has built unto date, we try to infer and make our next best action.
That's akin to the 'mopping the floor' - a continuous state of mind and living setup where we each try to perceive, sense, feel, emote, respond, react, act, make an opinion of something by looking at the 'effects' of the actual and factual events.
What typically gets missed out in that relentless efforts to make sense of world 'effects' is the ground understanding that there's a 'Tap running On' (i.e., Root Causes leaping forward continually in a Neural Network model, not fixated ONE ROOT CAUSE but many in tandem, in a chaining model of I/O)
Meaning, what you make sense of a given thing need to go through continual rigor of newer "understanding" as there are continuous dynamic shifts in the world too.
(This is not a commodity skill but comes with a trained mind, a controlled mind that is mastered to discern the objective right and wrong with principled thinking. )
Rate of water running from the Tap
+
Rate at which YOU are mopping (or your ability to mop)
= Effective Results without slippery floor.
If we apply the same parallel,
Use this as a primer as most of the notes above feed into the grounding one's own mind.
There's no quick how-to guide to live your life, shortcuts and hacks to get to a solution or outcome faster. If you are in a rush, you are not in the right place.
It's a journey towards truth-seeking. It's a long journey with many vista points and wild turns. Brace for all of it.
Build a MIND of YOUR OWN. It takes time.
And, get into character building, principled thinking and all of the challenges to resolve will become a fun learning exercises than a burdensome life to lead in pain and misery.
YOU are NOT your political identity. It's a point in time or a proxy or you have created such image of your own or given such image of your own in your own making of it. It's artificial.
YOUR true identity must come from YOUR spiritual attributes, YOUR set of principles (fundamentals that are timeless, evergreen, not subject to change), YOUR Values, YOUR true grounding philosophies, YOUR Character. Find those, if you have not found them yet. That's where YOUR individual UNIQUENESS lies.
All of these superficially toned, political left and right stories by taking lame excuses of some historical event to NOT see an absolute objective moral right and wrong is a dull, unintelligent, parasitic mind that lost its vitality and vigor. Don't lurk around in those trenches and lose your mind. Wake UP!!
As it's apparent that it's inevitable for us to 'mop the floor' while the 'Tap is running on', from the interaction and understanding the Universe, at least, know the rates, attributes and effectiveness of your mopping along with gauging, assessing, re-evaluating the rates of change in the water that's running out in the wild. 😊
Hope this gives you a better perspective!
Be well. 🌹😊
THINK well. Act with care and precision.
Thank you. Best wishes. Peace and Love. ♥️
