Coltrane

Here's an interesting quote from John Coltrane talking about his playing in 1961:

"Here's how I play. I start from one point and go as far as possible. But, unfortunately, I never lose my way. I say unfortunately, because what would interest me greatly is to discover paths that I'm perhaps not aware of... The harmonies have become for me a kind of obsession, which gives me the feeling of looking at the music from the wrong end of a telescope."

Dice

If you roll one die, your chance of getting a six is 1 in 6. If you roll it again, your chances are still 1 in 6. The six-millionth time you roll the die, the chances of getting a six are still 1 in 6. The odds of rolling a six in six-million tries is one-million in six-million, which is the same as 1 in 6. It feels like the more times you do it, the higher the odds of a six will be but they aren't.
The same is true when trying to do other things. Your odds of success are the same if you try once as if you try a million times. So the whole "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" idea of success doesn't really hold up, right?
Wrong. The odds are the same on multiple tries only if the system is entirely based on chance. If it's a crap-shoot (literally too) it doesn't matter how many times you try. Many systems are not based entirely on chance, and you can narrow the odds on successive tries by learning how the systems work. Multiple tries are worthless only if the system is entirely based on chance.