Remember
the nail that stands up above the others gets hit first by the hammer.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 24 May 2010, 12:25, 6 replies)

So.... Don't be a nail?
Is that it?
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Mon 24 May 2010, 12:26, closed)

It's a Japanese phrase originally.
It means "Conform to your group or face the consequences".

Told you it was Japanese.
( Bats, Mon 24 May 2010, 13:04, closed)

I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, if I could.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 24 May 2010, 13:44, closed)

The early bird catches the worm
but the second mouse gets the cheese
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Mon 24 May 2010, 15:28, closed)

You say that like it's a bad thing
Surely a nail exists to be hit on the head? If I, as a nail, escaped (ie rolled out of the bag) and hid (fell) between the floorboards I would feel my life had been wasted.

So it means "get yourself noticed in order to fulfil your life's destiny"
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Mon 24 May 2010, 17:19, closed)

i was told this at school
i was furious

"be average"

sod that!
(DreddPirateBob has watched every scifi film ever on, Mon 24 May 2010, 19:15, closed)