Citations:Kobayashi Maru

Noun: "(informal) a situation with no positive or favourable outcome; a no-win scenario"

 * 2001, Lee A. Tonouich, Da Word, page 85:
 * So no matta wot option we pick, cannot win. Like one Kobayashi Maru, ba. Yuuup. Eh, I betta stop wit these allusions to da kine science fiction shows dat I no even like, ba.
 * 2005, Stewart O'Nan & Stephen King, Faithful: Two Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, page 318:
 * Last night Terry Francona took the Grady test—the Red Sox version of the Kobayashi Maru—and from his solution, it appears he was peeking at Grady’s paper.
 * 2005, Raymond Yeo, "Real Magic", in Best Gay Love Stories 2006 (ed. Alyson Brooks), page 228:
 * "It's the Kobayashi Maru."
 * Daniel and I had decided to get away from the city. Without aiming for any specific place, we ended up walking along a winding dirt road. It was an especially cool summer evening.
 * "If I report all of the losses, I'm dead," I went on, my hands shoved deep in my jean pockets. "And if I lie, then I'm no better than they are."
 * 2010, April Winchell, Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, page 121:
 * Christmas is the Kobayashi Maru of holidays. It is unwinnable.
 * 2012, Paul S. Berry, Essential Advice for Pre-Meds: Timeless Wisdom 4 the Age of Technology, page 51:
 * There's a slight difference, and there’s no correct answer. It’s kinda like the Kobayashi Maru (from Star Trek).
 * 2013, Gina Robinson, License to Love, page 263:
 * "If the chief isn't Random, you're committing career suicide," Lani said. "And if he is, you've betrayed your country. Either way, it's your hide."
 * Tate took the laptop from Rock. "The Kobayashi Maru scenario. Bring it on."
 * 2013, Mark M. Weber, Tell My Sons, page 29:
 * Failure to follow instructions resulted in a tongue-lashing. And the daily rituals often consisted of at least one “Kobayashi Maru” (“no-win” scenario), where the intent was to be unfair.
 * 2013, Danie Ware, Ecko Rising, page 132:
 * “Save it.” Ecko’s snarl was subdued. “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t get you shit. Unless Eliza’s stuck me in some Kobayashi Maru, there’s a solution. Let’s go get it.”
 * 2014, Christopher Brookmyre, Bedlam, page 49:
 * Kobayashi Maru, Ross thought. It was a test he could only fail, a test in which he didn't recognise what could constitute success.
 * 2014, Stacey Kade, The Hunt, page 163:
 * And in lab-created scenarios, I’d always had access to everything I needed to succeed, even if I had to work hard to get it. No Kobayashi Maru tests at GIX.
 * 2015, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Think Big, Act Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless, page 21:
 * Going to fail? Really? Simply put, I’m with Captain Kirk from Star Trek: I may make mistakes, but I refuse to accept the parameters of the “Kobayashi Maru” or the no-win scenario as an assessment of my character.
 * 2015, Scott Meyer, An Unwelcome Quest, page 265:
 * Martin said, “Gwen, do you understand that there’s no right answer to that? You've asked me the Kobayashi Maru of questions. There’s no possible way to answer that won't make you mad.”
 * 2015, Danger Slater, I Will Rot Without You, page 101:
 * “Yeah, that’s exactly right,” Mr. Chakrabarti growls into my ear. “Your silence is a window into your true character. You're just a coward, Cotard. I, on the other hand, have been training for the Koon-ut-kal-if-fee since I was just a little boy. You'd certainly be in a kobayashi maru were you and I to ever come to blows, that’s for goddamn sure.”
 * 2015, Tatjana Soli, The Last Good Paradise, page 195:
 * Cooked slammed the table. "If I take on this place, I'll be part of the lie, too. The military keeps us off balance so that they make money from tourists coming here."
 * There was silence around the table. After all, they were those tourists. "It's kind of a Kobayashi Maru situation," Wende said.
 * 2016, Annie Bellet, Level Grind, page 272:
 * My real words were unspoken. Give me time to think. Give me time to figure out how to cheat my own personal hell, my own Kobayashi Maru.
 * 2016, J. J. Manton, Sit, Stay, Love, page 125:
 * "The trick is to train him without turning him into a hefty puppy," Eric explained while Potato wagged his tail and jumped, as if trying to reach the treats. "Good muscle tone is one of the most important elements of the judging."
 * “Well, this is just a regular Kobayashi Maru,” I said.
 * 2016, Hillary Manton Lodge, Together at the Table, page 81:
 * “You might not be able to win,” I said. “It may be the Kobayashi Maru of seating arrangements.”
 * 2016, Nic Tatano, The Empire State Cat's Christmas Gift, page 203:
 * "Like I said, he didn't used to be that way. Money does strange things to people. I hate that you're in a no-win situation like this."
 * "Friggin' Kobayashi Maru."
 * 2016, Emma Woolley, "The Vulcan in Me", in The Secret Love of Geek Girls (ed. Hope Nicholson), page 266:
 * The difficult question for me, in my experience, has been: how can I really express and be myself while also being taken seriously? At times, this is a real Kobayashi Maru.
 * 2017, Shawn Askinosie & Lawren Askinosie, Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul, page 87:
 * Faced with this classic Kobayashi Maru scenario (for the uninitiated: this term comes from Star Trek, and means a no-win situation that tests one’s character) we decided that profit would give way to a promise.
 * 2017, Lee Parks, "One drink at lunch is cool, right," BMW Owners News, April 2017, page 100;
 * In that moment I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life. Do I risk dying or being seriously injured at the drunken hands of someone I don't really know? Otherwise, do I risk killing or seriously injuring myself and a bunch of strangers by my own drunken hands? Was this to be my personal Kobayashi Maru? It felt like a game of Russian Roulette, and the only question was who was going to pull the trigger on us all?

Noun: "(informal) an instance of bending the rules or altering the parameters of a situation to one's favour"

 * 2010, Rob Balder, Erfworld, page 38:
 * (They would do it, too, the boops. That's just the kind of insidious outside-the-box, Kobayashi Maru tactic they'd need to get out of the no-win scenarip was planning to put them in. If that's what happened, then I give them a commendation for original thinking.)
 * 2017, Daniel Barbarisi, Dueling with Kings: High Stakes, Killer Sharks, and the Get-Rich Promise of Daily Fantasy Sports, page 242:
 * The site lacks a feature you want, whether that’s making last-minute lineup changes en masse or providing the won-loss records of all your opponents? Then write a program that changes the way your computer interacts with the site, Kobayashi Maru-style.