sorcerer's apprentice
Wizard's eager student
A sorcerer's apprentice is someone who sets forces in motion they cannot control.
The phrase comes from a folktale about a magician's student who enchants a broom to carry water, then cannot stop it from flooding the workshop.
The story was popularized by a Goethe poem and Disney's *Fantasia*.
The engineer who created the algorithm became a sorcerer's apprentice when it began making decisions he couldn't predict.
- spellcastingPerforming magical incantations
- GoetheGerman poet-dramatist, 1749-1832
- noviceInexperienced newcomer to field
- FantasiaImaginative musical composition
- recklessnessCareless disregard for danger
cautionary tale · arrogance · folly · enchantment · overreach · playing with fire · brooms · archetype · pupil · wizardry · allegory · misjudgment · unintended consequences · loss of control · folklore · training · initiation · chaos
- cautionary talesIcarus, Prometheus, Faust, Dr. Faustus, Pandora
sorcerer, apprentice, sorcery, sorceress, sorcerous, apprenticeship, apprenticed