Adding to the Culture: “to Bullwinkle.”
I'd like to humbly submit the verb “to Bullwinkle” as “persistence in spite of previous evidence of failure.”
I've frequently described my online-dating experience as “Bullwinkling” without any irony: I was absolutely aware that I was repeatedly saying “This time, for sure!” just after a lion had swallowed my arm. This is another aspect of what I call “managed optimism” and perhaps others might call denial.
The simple fact is that engaged in a task that's like shoveling a pile of sand with a spoon, you must either elect to forcibly shut down self-criticism, or abandon the task. Persisting while grumbling about the futility—altogether too frequently my modus operandii—is stupidly wearing on one's self and others.
Besides, Bullwinkling is not futile. I did meet my Shiny Wife, and the average of our online-dating experiences is probably darned close to the sorta-real average. (I, for 4 years and >1000 emails, she for 5 days and <50) Bullwinkle just kept his optimism in working on a task even though his previous tries failed.
So stick to it, fellow mooses, success is surely right around the corner,