History Main / GiveAManAFish

* Michael Plait offered this gem at TAM 8:

--> "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you get him out of the house on the weekend."

* Straight example: This trope is the reason why Heifer International exists. They donate livestock and plants to poor families around the world, as well as train them.

* There's another version, source also unknown, although somewhat well-spread across the internet, that goes like this: "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will dragnet the bottom of the ocean floor, dump 90% of what he catches as unmarketable, pollute the skies with greasy black smoke from his fish canning factories, wipe out the various species of fish that he has been exploiting, devastate the ecosystem, process his dead into SoylentGreen, fall into a deadly downward spiral of food-riots and warfare, blow up the planet, and be succeeded on the top of the food-chain by cockroaches."

* Ron Swanson on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish, and you feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard."
** The leader of the "Kaboom" playground-building team:
-->"Take a man to Kabooming, and he Kabooms. Teach a man to Kaboom, and KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM!!"

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll stand at the top of a cliff, whisk pigs off the ground, and snipe them out of the air.

-->''"I have heard [Gabriel] suggest that the game is crack, but it's more like all of the ingredients and equipment that you need to make crack, which I'd say is worse."''
--->-- '''Tycho''', ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'', [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/9/17/ describing this game]]

!!Examples:

!!Unsorted

* Used incorrectly in {{Negima}}?(dub) by Asuna while fishing.
-->"If you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a day, but if you give him a fish he'll [[{{Metaphorgotten}} just eat a bunch of fish]]!"

* A more sociopathic variation: Light a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Light a man ''on'' fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
** This is the [[Creator/TerryPratchett Tao of Pratchett]], according to [[Literature/DresdenFiles Harry Dresden]].

* As said by Minsc in BaldursGate, after giving money to a beggar:

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'': "Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life."

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll stand at the top of a cliff, whisk pigs off the ground, and snipe them out of the air.
** On the subject of how incredibly addictive ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' can be:
-->''"I have heard [Gabriel] suggest that the game is crack, but it's more like all of the ingredients and equipment that you need to make crack, which I'd say is worse."''
--->-- '''Tycho''', ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'', [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/9/17/ describing this game]]

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries.
--> '''[[Quotes/SchlockMercenary Maxim 21:]]''' Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Take his fish away and tell him he's lucky just to be alive, and he'll figure out how to catch another one for you to take tomorrow.
* Jason Love's ''Snapshots'' -- the RobinHood [[http://www.jasonlove.com/cartoons/00699-funny-cartoons-robin-hood.gif cartoon]].
* The alt-text of [[http://xkcd.com/857/ this]] ''WebComic/{{XKCD}}'' says "Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only remaining vial of antidote."
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0612.html here]]. The title of that day's strip is, "Technically, the 'Fish' Version is a Subset of This One."
--> '''Belkar''': Solve a man's problems with violence, help him for a day. ''Teach'' a man to solve his problems with violence, help him for a lifetime!
* Jackie Kashian gave us the salesman's version: "Give a man a fish, and that man knows where to come for fish. Teach a man to fish, and you've just destroyed your market base. What the hell is wrong with you?"
* There's an unusual twist on one floating around the internet: Give a fish a fish, and you introduce the concept of slavery to an entire species. Teach a fish to fish, and you make him a mythical, nightmarish murderer feared by his own kind.
* Or, "give a man a fish, and ''[[http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/5104 make it illegal to teach fishing]]''".
* There's another version, source also unknown, although somewhat well-spread across the internet, that goes like this: "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will dragnet the bottom of the ocean floor, dump 90% of what he catches as unmarketable, pollute the skies with greasy black smoke from his fish canning factories, wipe out the various species of fish that he has been exploiting, devastate the ecosystem, process his dead into SoylentGreen, fall into a deadly downward spiral of food-riots and warfare, blow up the planet, and be succeeded on the top of the food-chain by cockroaches."

* Used incorrectly in {{Negima}}?(dub) by Asuna while fishing.
-->"If you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a day, but if you give him a fish he'll [[{{Metaphorgotten}} just eat a bunch of fish]]!"
* From [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2004-03-13 This]] ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' BSideComics strip: "Couldn't you just '''give''' me a fish?"
* Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in your boat and drink all your beer.
* As said by Minsc in BaldursGate, after giving money to a beggar:
--> "You should have given him a sword! Give a man a fish and he feeds himself for a day. Give a man a sword, and he can chow down on the meaty marrow of evil!"

* Quoth [[http://www.digital-web.com/articles/jeremy_keith_2/ Jeremy Keith]], on his book ''Bulletproof Ajax'': "Give someone a fish and they’ll think you’re a bit of weirdo; teach someone how to fish and they’ll wonder what fishing has got to do with web design."
* A more sociopathic variation: Light a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Light a man ''on'' fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
** This is the [[Creator/TerryPratchett Tao of Pratchett]], according to [[Literature/DresdenFiles Harry Dresden]].
* ''Webcomic/MountainTime'': Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Give a man some worms and you [[http://mountaincomics.com/2012/07/19/mountain-time-374/ feed the fish, too.]]
* Parodied with the [[PandaingToTheAudience Pandaren]] in ''WorldOfWarcraft''

* A joke/variation accredited to wives both happy and annoyed:
--> "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you get him out of the house on the weekend."
* Quoted by Archer in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode ''Mauraders'', when deciding the best way to protect a colony of miners from being bullied regularly by a group of Klingons is to teach them how to stand up for themselves.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'': Give a player a fish, and he’ll probably try to sell it to an NPC fisherman. Teach a player to fish, and next week he’ll show up with the book, “The Complete Adventuring Fisherman”. He’ll start hunting for some monstrous leviathan to catch and enslave, and he’ll be dual-wielding two fishing poles.

* Ron Swanson on ''ParksAndRecreation'': "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish, and you feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard."
** Also in Parks and Recreation, the leader of the "Kaboom" playground-building team:

* ''{{Minecraft}}'': Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll stand at the top of a cliff, whisk pigs off the ground, and snipe them out of the air.
** On the subject of how incredibly addictive ''{{Minecraft}}'' can be:

-->"Feed a man for free. He'll be back asking for more. Feed a man a bullet. You won't hear from him again."

* Parodied in ''FableII'' in a loading screen. Teach a man to fish, and he'll stink up the whole town.

* Parodied in ''FableII'' in a loading screen. Teach a man to fish, and he'll stink up the whole town.

* Quoted by Archer in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode ''Mauraders'', when deciding the best way to protect a colony of miners from being bullied regularly by a group of Klingons is to teach them how to stand up for themselves.

* Another joke version: give a man a fish, and he knows where to go for fish. Teach a man to fish, and you've just destroyed you market base. What were you thinking?

** This is the [[Main/TerryPratchett Tao of Pratchett]], according to [[Main/DresdenFiles Harry Dresden]].

--> "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you get him out of the house on the weekend."

--> "Teach a man to fish, and he is fed for a day. Uh, no, uh...he is fed. I...I messed it up, but we just make this stuff up anyway."

* [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2004-03-13 This]] ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' BSideComics strip.

-->''"I have heard [Gabriel] suggest that the game is crack, but it's [[GiveAManAFish more like all of the ingredients and equipment that you need to make crack]], which I'd say is worse."''

* {{Minecraft}}: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll stand at the top of a cliff, whisk pigs off the ground, and snipe them out of the air.