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Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's your pal Josh. And for this week's

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Speaker 1: s Y s K Selects, I've chosen How Guessing Works.

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Speaker 1: It was one of those great ideas for a topic

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Speaker 1: that didn't pan out to have much information on it actually,

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Speaker 1: so we just talked a lot about subjective stuff instead,

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Speaker 1: and it turned out well, I think in the end.

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Speaker 1: If I may say so, I hope you enjoy Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Stuff you should know, a production of my Heart

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Speaker 1: Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over

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Speaker 1: there in the corner. Everybody puts Jerry in a corner,

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Speaker 1: but you shouldn't, uh, and this is stuff you should not.

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Speaker 1: She's the opposite of baby. Jerry's back. She was back

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Speaker 1: from the mall. That's how where she's been. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: remember we we said that she was at the mall.

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Speaker 1: She was buying a how she's doing all sorts of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But she's back now and things are normal again. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she was at the beach and she's now eating in

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Speaker 1: front of me. What I ate about an hour ago?

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Speaker 1: Do you want to throw up? Or do you want more?

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Speaker 1: I don't it's it's this weird in between. I'm drawn

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Speaker 1: to the smell, but I'm also full, so I'm kind

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Speaker 1: of like boo, yeah, oh man, what a life? I know?

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Speaker 1: Eating Who needs it? Right? Me? I do too? I

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Speaker 1: love eating, love it? You know what else? I love? What?

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Speaker 1: Really good? Magic? Like illusions? Well where does uh? What

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Speaker 1: do you mean? Because that could mean two different things. Well,

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Speaker 1: let me tell you, um, so I went you mean,

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Speaker 1: and I went to New York recently we saw this show.

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Speaker 1: It's called in and of itself. It's a one man

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Speaker 1: stage magic I guess you could call it that illusion

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Speaker 1: show by a guy named Derek del Guadio. That's how

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Speaker 1: you say his last name. I strongly recommend anyone go

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Speaker 1: see this show. It's it's um I think they extended

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Speaker 1: it through the rest of the year, but it's it's

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Speaker 1: like kind of his life story. It told like through

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Speaker 1: these different um these different acts, and like just the

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Speaker 1: the stuff he's doing is not like, oh man, that

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Speaker 1: rabbit came out of nowhere, nothing like that. It's all

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Speaker 1: much more psychological than that. But the basis of it

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Speaker 1: is that this guy must be just one of the

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Speaker 1: better guesters walking around today. He's just good. He's also

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Speaker 1: like a card shark. It's just a really neat show.

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Speaker 1: It's really original and different. But just to see somebody

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Speaker 1: do something to where they probably are guessing, but they're

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Speaker 1: doing such an amazing job at it that it just

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Speaker 1: appears to be magic. That's one of my favorite things

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Speaker 1: in the world to see, Like when he talks to

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Speaker 1: people and like think of a number except obviously more

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Speaker 1: fun and complex and that. Yes, yeah, and I don't

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Speaker 1: want to give any of it away. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to give it any bit of it away. Like for

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Speaker 1: anybody who's gonna go see it, everyone should go into

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Speaker 1: it fresh. But um, but yeah, just just after you

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Speaker 1: see it, go back and listen to this episode again

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Speaker 1: and you'll be like, oh, yeah, totally now. I think

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Speaker 1: the deal a lot of times with that situation is

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Speaker 1: powers of suggestion, correct. I don't know. I don't know, man,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what this guy's doing or not. No,

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Speaker 1: he's not doing like cold readings or something like that

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Speaker 1: like John Edwards. No, no, no, nothing like that. But

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Speaker 1: powers of suggestion in that if you you can lead

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Speaker 1: someone to to think of a certain thing that they

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Speaker 1: then guess I guess, so get it didn't even mean that,

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Speaker 1: but that kind of dives into what we're talking about,

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Speaker 1: which is guessing in general. Um, there's this whole like

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Speaker 1: like science really doesn't have any idea about how we

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Speaker 1: make guesses. All we know is that we are capable

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Speaker 1: of making guesses, and that we make guesses almost constantly,

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Speaker 1: and that like our our brain is basically set up

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Speaker 1: to guests, Like our construction of reality is a series

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Speaker 1: of guesses, most of which pan out to be right,

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Speaker 1: but then can also be terribly wrong, which is what

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Speaker 1: optical illusions prove, you know. Yeah, and uh, I found this.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be more interesting than

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Speaker 1: it was initially when I picked this one out, so

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Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed. And then we found like

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Speaker 1: other supplemental stuff that kind of helped it. But in

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Speaker 1: the end it felt a little unwieldy. But I think

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Speaker 1: that's just because of the nature of the topic, Like

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Speaker 1: there isn't a concise beginning, middle, and end to this

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Speaker 1: kind of topic, you know, no, because again science is

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Speaker 1: pretty well stumped, like even and sometimes Chuck, if you'll remember,

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Speaker 1: these can be our best episodes, like unless the ones

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Speaker 1: where there's just like a clear cut, complete, understandable, neat

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Speaker 1: explanation ones are great, and then on the other end

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Speaker 1: of the spectrum, like this one, were the ones where

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Speaker 1: science is just kind of like maybe this is it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, this could be it. Those are usually

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Speaker 1: pretty good too, So this could this one has has potential. Alright,

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Speaker 1: that's my that's my estimation. Well, I thought it was

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Speaker 1: interesting that in our very own house Stuff Works article

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Speaker 1: and they started talking about um the in days of

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Speaker 1: yore with starting with took took and you know, basically

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Speaker 1: up until the point where we could like you know,

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Speaker 1: measure things or prove things, like, there was a lot

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Speaker 1: of and there's still a lot of guessing going on,

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Speaker 1: but like guessing was a daily survival tactic, right, Like

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Speaker 1: that's how that's how we learned. Should I go this

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Speaker 1: way and fall off a cliff? You know, I'm going

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Speaker 1: to take a guess? Or should I eat this thing?

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Speaker 1: Will it kill me? Or like in the case of

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Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark, I remember, um, Clark estimated and you

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Speaker 1: know they're guesses, and we'll get into different types of

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Speaker 1: an estimation is a kind of a guess, even if

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Speaker 1: it's informed and well reasoned. In Clark's case, of course,

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Speaker 1: he estimated. I think he's only off about forty miles

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Speaker 1: when they got to the Pacific. Uh. Oh really, I

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Speaker 1: don't remember that. Yeah, he he estimated four thousand, one

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Speaker 1: sixty two miles when he's off by forty I mean

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Speaker 1: that's remarkable. Yeah, but it wasn't a wild guess. It

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Speaker 1: was Clark being a very smart dude who probably took

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Speaker 1: copious notes. Not probably, he definitely took copious notes. Um,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know. I just never really thought about

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Speaker 1: guessing back in those days. Could you know you could?

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Speaker 1: You could end up a bad guest means the end

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Speaker 1: of view, Yes, But if your friends were standing around

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Speaker 1: watching you guess that that um lizard over there wasn't poisonous,

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Speaker 1: you can just go ahead and eat it raw and

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Speaker 1: then you keel over and die, they learned from your

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Speaker 1: bad guests taking one for the team very much. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's before the universal edibility test. Man, you were just

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Speaker 1: have you been going through the archives or something? No,

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Speaker 1: but I wrote that article back then, so that one

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Speaker 1: stuck with me because you know, I mean, we're I

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Speaker 1: thought you were too. I'm cursed with that new information

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Speaker 1: in old information getting squeezed out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So

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Speaker 1: should we get into this I guess, So, I'm not

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Speaker 1: I don't mean to do this. I'm sorry what saying

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Speaker 1: I guess? Yeah, it's pretty commonplace, but it does kind

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Speaker 1: of under underscore just how much we do guess in

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Speaker 1: our lives. You know. Yeah, here's all right, let's go

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Speaker 1: ahead and start it with the brain then, because while

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Speaker 1: you're correct in saying that they don't know the the

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Speaker 1: pathways necessarily of a guess, um, all different kinds of

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Speaker 1: all different parts of the brain, not all the parts,

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Speaker 1: but many different parts of the brain are at work,

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Speaker 1: which makes a lot of sense when you think about

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Speaker 1: what different kinds of guesses can al, whether you're guessing

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Speaker 1: someone's age or guessing you know, because that involves like,

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Speaker 1: you know, recognition with your eyeballs or a memory of

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Speaker 1: someone else who was a certain age who looked like

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Speaker 1: that like you're you know, recall, Uh, there's all different

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Speaker 1: parts of the brain that are lighting up whenever you're

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Speaker 1: guessing something. Yeah, they they think that it's a global,

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Speaker 1: a global phenomenon, right, like brain brain a lely global Yes,

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Speaker 1: exactly right. So, um, there's like some region of your

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Speaker 1: brain that specializes in the particular task at hand. The

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Speaker 1: thing you're guessing about, whether it's say, like volume or

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Speaker 1: like you said, someone's age. UM, that region of the

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Speaker 1: brain that that has to do with say numbers, UM

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Speaker 1: would light up. I think it's the um parietal uh

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Speaker 1: anterior gyrus or something like that that lights up when

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Speaker 1: you're trying to guess someone's age based on how they look.

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Speaker 1: But then that that's just one I think right using

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Speaker 1: the Wonder Machine night. But that's just one functional part

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Speaker 1: of the whole process that the brain is going through.

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Speaker 1: They know that it's there's a number of different regions

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Speaker 1: that are operating at any given point in time when

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Speaker 1: you're making a guess, But they still can't say, well,

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Speaker 1: if somebody's guessing this, this is what's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: Here's the here's the cascade that's going to go through

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Speaker 1: the brain. We haven't reached that point yet. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: think that, um, if you're guessing about a visual object

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Speaker 1: or subject, then your frontal lobe and occipital lobe are

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Speaker 1: at work. Numerical quantities like how many uh jelly beans

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Speaker 1: are in that jar. That's kind of the common thing

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Speaker 1: they mentioned that like that still happens. Is that sort

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Speaker 1: of thing? Um, you know, who is a jelly bean

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Speaker 1: jar guessing champions? My wife really is, yes, longstanding, her

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Speaker 1: special reasoning is is outstanding well. Spatial reasoning and new

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Speaker 1: miracle quantities are a big part of trying to guess

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Speaker 1: the quantity of something into something right And and so

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Speaker 1: if you, if your brain is kind of specialized in

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Speaker 1: that manner, um, you are probably going to be better

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Speaker 1: at it than somebody whose brain is not right. So

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Speaker 1: Umi would beat me every time. My spatial reasoning is horrific. Right,

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Speaker 1: But um, I'm really good at recognizing faces, so I'm

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Speaker 1: probably better at at guessing the someone's age based on

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Speaker 1: their face um or possibly how they're feeling based on

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Speaker 1: their facial expression than she might be. That's a whole

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Speaker 1: like I didn't even think about that being part of guessing.

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Speaker 1: But the emotional thing of guessing, uh yeah, like someone's feelings,

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Speaker 1: what they're thinking like that, that's a whole different thing

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Speaker 1: than guessing jelly beans in a jar, which is different

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Speaker 1: than guessing someone's age. It's like all lumped into guessing.

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Speaker 1: It's really more varied than I ever considered, right, And

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Speaker 1: so with with UM, well, let's talk about the different

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Speaker 1: different types of guesses you might make. That. So, I

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Speaker 1: think what you just kind of did, Chuck, was you

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Speaker 1: divided UM guesses into UM like buckets, the two buckets.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to decide what the buckets would be called though.

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Speaker 1: So one bucket would be UM just kind of work,

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Speaker 1: working knowledge, and the other would be say, like emotional, right, Like, so,

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Speaker 1: how many jelly beans are in a jar? Would that

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Speaker 1: be in the working knowledge bucket? What somebody's feeling based

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Speaker 1: on your guests, based on say their facial expression, that's

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Speaker 1: that's emotional um or or intellectual. Yeah, that's why intellectual

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Speaker 1: or emotional buckets. BAM just carved them up. But I

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Speaker 1: think those are kind of like the two categories you

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Speaker 1: can put guesses into. Even though you can break types

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Speaker 1: of guesses down further. Yeah, and uh, breaking them down further,

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Speaker 1: you have your wild guesses. This is when you have

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Speaker 1: no information, no outside input whatsoever. And you know, you

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Speaker 1: often say, this is just a wild guess if I

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Speaker 1: had to guess, Yeah, something like that. You're saying here,

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Speaker 1: listen to me, I can speak has no basis in

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Speaker 1: factor reality or anything like that. Then you have your

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Speaker 1: educated guests, which is in the middle, and that's when

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Speaker 1: you have a little bit of information. Uh. There's a

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Speaker 1: military term that I had never heard of called swag,

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Speaker 1: which stands for um stuff we all get no scientific uh,

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Speaker 1: wild ass guessing okay, which is like a guestimate. But

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Speaker 1: it's a military term by all accounts. Uh. Most people

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Speaker 1: say it started in Vietnam with General Westmoreland. Um. And

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Speaker 1: you will hear military people say swag, and that's when

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Speaker 1: you know, I've got a little information. I'm not just

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Speaker 1: wild guessing here. This is a ballpark educated guess, right,

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Speaker 1: but it's not still less than an estimate. That's when

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Speaker 1: we have a lot more information. Yeah, just a lot

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Speaker 1: more information. But you're you're pretty familiar also with the

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Speaker 1: topic that you're you're guessing at as well. Right. So

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Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark, I think both of them, Um, we're surveyors.

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Speaker 1: So they would have had a lot of training as

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Speaker 1: far as you know, judging distance goes. They would have

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Speaker 1: had some information to put together. So Clark coming up with,

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Speaker 1: you know, with an estimate of how why the continent

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Speaker 1: is and just being off by forty miles, like you said,

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Speaker 1: that's remarkable, But if you had had one of us

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Speaker 1: do it, it would have been a wild guess. So

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Speaker 1: it has to do with the training, the expertise really UM,

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Speaker 1: and then the amount of information you have. That's that's

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Speaker 1: what an estimate is. Yeah, And you may not even

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Speaker 1: know that you have information stored away in your brain

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Speaker 1: that you're recalling when you're trying to hazard a guess

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Speaker 1: on something. You might just be uh, you might think

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Speaker 1: it's a wild guess, but you're really kind of picking

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Speaker 1: out something that happened in your past maybe, right. Or

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Speaker 1: another way to look at it is that UM is intuition,

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Speaker 1: which is um. From what I understand, intuition is kind

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Speaker 1: of its own category. But if it's most closely related

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Speaker 1: to any type of those three guests, as we just mentioned,

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Speaker 1: it would be an estimate. And it comes from years

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Speaker 1: and years and years of training UM or exposure to

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Speaker 1: whatever you're guessing at to the point where your guesses

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Speaker 1: don't even seem like guesses. It just seems like for

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Speaker 1: knowledge of what you're about to do. Yeah, Like I

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Speaker 1: used to be really really bad at guessing crowd sizes,

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Speaker 1: but through our live shows, I've gotten pretty good at

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Speaker 1: it because when you go to these theaters, you know

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Speaker 1: how many people are in there, and then you stand

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Speaker 1: in front of that many people. And if you do

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Speaker 1: that enough times, I can now say, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: when people when I'll go to a show or something,

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Speaker 1: they'll be like, how many people you think this place holds?

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Speaker 1: I used to let's say like, I have no idea

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Speaker 1: I know, but now you say, you know better eight

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Speaker 1: or nine people. Yeah, and you're probably pretty close within

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Speaker 1: forty miles. All bad. And that's just because of exposure

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Speaker 1: and learning, right, And that actually brings up a really

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Speaker 1: good point that you can actually get better at guessing.

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Speaker 1: And we'll get into that right after this break. How

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Speaker 1: about that, Chuck, right? Mm hmmm. Alright, So Chuck, you

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Speaker 1: said that, um, that you got better at estimating crowd

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Speaker 1: sizes by just performing at Our Lives shows. Right, So

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Speaker 1: you were terrible at it before, very bad, but just

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Speaker 1: from from exposing yourself to it, going out on stage

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Speaker 1: and exposing yourself to crowds that you could judge the

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Speaker 1: size of Um, and everybody clapped that guy, yeah, Nelson

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Speaker 1: pointed in laughs Portland, Um, you you got better at it.

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Speaker 1: And when it comes to especially but probably both, but

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Speaker 1: especially intellectual guesses intellectual bucket guesses. Um, you can train

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Speaker 1: yourself to get better at it, and part of that

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Speaker 1: is making a guess, getting um, pretty much immediate feedback,

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Speaker 1: and then learning from that. Yeah, like you're wrong, this

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Speaker 1: is what the answer is. It's like anything else exactly.

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Speaker 1: Do that enough, you're gonna get better at it. Yeah. Um.

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Speaker 1: And there's this pretty interesting UM, I guess. That was

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Speaker 1: interesting little kind of sidetrack that the author of the

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Speaker 1: guesses article, Alea hoyt Um, took, and I have to say, no,

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Speaker 1: it is Aliyah. It's not Alicia. No, it's Aliyah. There's

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Speaker 1: no saying Alicia for not only is the C silent,

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Speaker 1: it's not the it's invisible. So Aaliyah hoyt my hats

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Speaker 1: off to her because doing supplemental research for this, there

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Speaker 1: are not a lot of people who are coming up

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Speaker 1: with really substantial stuff about guesses. It's like it's barren.

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Speaker 1: It's probably the least amount of research I've ever encountered

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Speaker 1: in all of our almost thousand plus episodes. So the

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Speaker 1: fact that she put this together, my hats off to her.

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Speaker 1: But a sidetrack she takes is to teach the reader,

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Speaker 1: how to um get better at guessing a jar full

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Speaker 1: of jelly beans? Yeah, well that was exciting, I mean that,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, because always, I mean my method was

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Speaker 1: always to pick out a smaller area, like the bottom

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Speaker 1: inch of the jar, count as many as I could,

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Speaker 1: and estimate that and then multiply that out. That's actually

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Speaker 1: a great techniquead. Well, I don't know, I haven't guessed

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Speaker 1: jelly beans in a jar since I was probably twelve, right,

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Speaker 1: But that was always my method, which has a little

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Speaker 1: there's a little bit of method to it, but it's

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Speaker 1: definitely not as good as as this one. Okay, so

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Speaker 1: so this one it sounds a little more complex than

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Speaker 1: than it actually is. But if you say, if you

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Speaker 1: look at a jar and it's filled with jelly beans,

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Speaker 1: you can say, um, that jar is the volume of

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Speaker 1: that jar is say a court Okay, but then you

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Speaker 1: kind of want to begin with sure, right, But you

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Speaker 1: can learn, right, you can just look around, Like here's

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Speaker 1: the point. If you want to get good at guessing

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Speaker 1: jelly beans. It just takes a little bit of work.

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Speaker 1: Most people would walk up, say a million jelly beans,

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Speaker 1: and they're off by like nine thousand. They're like well,

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Speaker 1: I'm terrible at guessing jelly beans. I'm going to sleep

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Speaker 1: for the rest of my life. But if you want

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Speaker 1: to get good at guessing at jelly beans, all you

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Speaker 1: have to do is poke around, learn a few things,

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Speaker 1: and then you can basically apply those to every situation.

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Speaker 1: And one of the things you would need to learn

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Speaker 1: is how to judge the volume of the container to

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Speaker 1: start correct. So that's one part, right, yeah, which you

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Speaker 1: know most people would do that that by comparing it

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Speaker 1: to like a milk jug or a two leader bottle

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Speaker 1: or something like that, right, But in this case, to

324
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Speaker 1: get a really accurate estimate, you would want to know specifically,

325
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Speaker 1: say how many ounces a container held correct. Um. And

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Speaker 1: then another thing you would probably do if you started

327
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Speaker 1: researching guessing jelly beans and jar on the internet, um,

328
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Speaker 1: you would you would run across some research that found

329
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Speaker 1: that if you have uh, spherical objects in a jar,

330
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Speaker 1: they typically take up about if you fill the thing up,

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Speaker 1: they take typically take up about sixty four of the

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Speaker 1: actual volume of the jar. And that's if it's they're

333
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Speaker 1: just randomly dumped. Right. So if you come across a

334
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Speaker 1: jar and you say, um, and it's filled with like

335
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Speaker 1: perfectly round. Um, okay, perfectly round bouncy balls, right, Um,

336
00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,160
Speaker 1: you can say, well, those are spherical and they're taking

337
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:13,840
Speaker 1: up about six of the jar. So all I have

338
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,159
Speaker 1: to do is figure out the um the basically the

339
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:22,200
Speaker 1: size of each of the ball, right, and then divide

340
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,719
Speaker 1: it by the volume, and then bam, you just guessed

341
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Speaker 1: how many are in there, and you're probably pretty close

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Speaker 1: to right. Sure, So this all sounds mind numbing. I've

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Speaker 1: got a little, um, a little trickle blood coming out

344
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Speaker 1: of my ear right now. But you can the whole point,

345
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 1: and you can train yourself to make better guesses, to

346
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Speaker 1: estimate better. That's the whole point. Yeah. And if it's

347
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Speaker 1: a non spherical by the way, like if it's peanuts

348
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Speaker 1: or something like that, or ice cubes, not disgusting circus peanuts.

349
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Speaker 1: Oh man, the that conjures up so many memories. Did

350
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Speaker 1: you like those? Well? I think I might have when

351
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Speaker 1: I was a kid, but I haven't had one in

352
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Speaker 1: forty years. But I still remember the taste you me

353
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Speaker 1: just had something. She says, they still hold up, and

354
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Speaker 1: I'm like, I didn't like him, then I'm not gonna

355
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Speaker 1: like him now. Well, they hold up for you in

356
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Speaker 1: a bad way, right right, yeah, exactly, So I know,

357
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Speaker 1: I know I'm not supposed to yuck. Anyone's young, but yuck.

358
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Speaker 1: So uh, if it's circus peanuts, let's say, um, that

359
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:34,560
Speaker 1: would be between fifty and of the space, not sixty four. Yeah, so, uh,

360
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,439
Speaker 1: what is you mean's method? Did you ask her? She

361
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Speaker 1: says she just kind of knowsh So she's a precock exactly.

362
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Speaker 1: She she shaves her head once a while and lays

363
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Speaker 1: around in a vat of liquid. Wow, that would be see,

364
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Speaker 1: I would that would scare me if that would if

365
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Speaker 1: that was my wife's answer, if she just like kind

366
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Speaker 1: of walked by and said I just know, right, yeah,

367
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Speaker 1: I would be like, well, what else do you just know? Yeah?

368
00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:03,040
Speaker 1: She's kind of unstoppable too. You have no idea how

369
00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 1: many calves we've won at county fairs in the last

370
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Speaker 1: year alone. Our house is overrun with them. Um. All right,

371
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,920
Speaker 1: So that's just guessing volume of a thing and a thing.

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Speaker 1: That's an it's intellectual guessing. Yeah, right, But you can

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Speaker 1: train yourself to guess better. What's really up for for

374
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Speaker 1: questioning is whether you can train yourself to get better

375
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Speaker 1: at the other bucket of guessing emotional type of guessing

376
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Speaker 1: right where you're walking around and you are interacting with

377
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Speaker 1: other people and you're making judgments about how they're feeling

378
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Speaker 1: right then, about what they're thinking, right then, what their

379
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:43,840
Speaker 1: motives are. Um, you know, how how well they're actually

380
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 1: listening to you all of these things right? It's part

381
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Speaker 1: of our interaction with other people. And there's something that

382
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,920
Speaker 1: UM two researchers called X and took great combo that

383
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: back established this kind of field of inquiry in which

384
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,359
Speaker 1: they were trying to get to the bottom of what

385
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:07,199
Speaker 1: they called empathic accuracy, which is how accurately we can

386
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Speaker 1: we can surmise what someone actually is feeling or thinking

387
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,360
Speaker 1: just from interacting with them. Some people are supposedly good

388
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Speaker 1: at it, some people are not. And from what I saw,

389
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Speaker 1: there's a big kind of push and pull about whether

390
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Speaker 1: it's worth practicing or whether you should just not do

391
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 1: that at all for the sake of your own sanity

392
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: and just say, if you tell me that you're in

393
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Speaker 1: a good mood, I'm going to take that at face value.

394
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,879
Speaker 1: And if you're actually not, then you're you're covering up

395
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 1: your feelings for your own reason, and that's that's fine.

396
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,160
Speaker 1: If you want to just keep them to yourself, that's fine.

397
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 1: If you want to share them, I'm here, but I'm

398
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,920
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna take what you're saying on face value,

399
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:51,640
Speaker 1: so Bully for you, that to me is sanity. He's

400
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 1: like going, how are you really feeling that you can? Uh,

401
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,719
Speaker 1: one can spend a lot of time doing that, so

402
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 1: so can I share a little bit about myself here?

403
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:09,199
Speaker 1: I know it's weird, feels gross, but um. For a

404
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:14,040
Speaker 1: very long time, Chuck, I thought that I was a

405
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: born and bread and path that like I could understand

406
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: what anyone was thinking and feeling, maybe even better than

407
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 1: they knew how they were thinking and feeling. And I

408
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: finally finally came to the hard truth that I was

409
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: wrong almost all the time. And in figuring this out,

410
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: like this was really jarring, and it took a little

411
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Speaker 1: while for me to like really for this to sink in.

412
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Speaker 1: But once I figured out that I'm actually terrible at

413
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 1: reading engaging other people's thoughts and feelings, it was one

414
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Speaker 1: of the most liberating things that's ever happened to me

415
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:55,120
Speaker 1: because I just stopped. I stopped, and I realized how

416
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: much of my life I've been walking around wasting just

417
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:02,399
Speaker 1: thinking about know what people really think or you know,

418
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,040
Speaker 1: do people really like me? They probably don't, or do they?

419
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: Or what do they mean by that look or whatever?

420
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 1: And just taking people in life on face value. UM

421
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: is so much. It's just it occupies so much less

422
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:20,200
Speaker 1: of your mind on any given moment. It's just great.

423
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,120
Speaker 1: That's my prescription. Stop trying to figure out what other

424
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 1: people are really thinking and feeling. You should have You

425
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 1: should have just asked me a long time ago. And

426
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:33,399
Speaker 1: when he told you, I was like, you're terrible at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

427
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:34,960
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to listen. You know,

428
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 1: it took it took a little while, but to walk

429
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:38,919
Speaker 1: through their own doors. You know what I'm saying? That

430
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:42,120
Speaker 1: is well put man, You're you're a stoic sage. So

431
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,439
Speaker 1: cognitive distortion is is a phrase you hear pop up

432
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:50,800
Speaker 1: a lot when it comes to assessing another person's emotions.

433
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 1: And these are these inaccurate thoughts that you have in

434
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: your brain. Sometimes they leave to negative thinking or encourage

435
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,880
Speaker 1: that I think probably most times is probably the case. UM.

436
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: And then polarized thinking is another bucket, I guess since

437
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,440
Speaker 1: we're bucketing everything today. UM, which is you know, everything

438
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 1: is great or everything is terrible. And the example they

439
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,360
Speaker 1: give in this in this article is, you know, it's

440
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 1: simply I mean, it's a little boy reading a girl's

441
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 1: face that you know she doesn't like me, but that

442
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 1: that's a kid in the elementary school. You can apply

443
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: this to anyone walking into a room and basically reading

444
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,199
Speaker 1: either the room or reading a person and saying like,

445
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: you know, I don't like the way that that person

446
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: just looked at me. Um, that's bad, and so I

447
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 1: don't think they like me. And those are both of

448
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 1: those things at work, cognitive distortion and polarized thinking, right,

449
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: which which I think polar is thinking is a type

450
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: of cognitive distortion. I think that's the umbrella term for

451
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Right, Yeah, that makes sense, So

452
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: um yeah, I think this is kind of where you

453
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: get to why a lot of people are terrible at

454
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: guessing or get get their guessing wrong, especially when it

455
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: comes saying what other people are thinking and feeling. Is

456
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 1: that your guess is, whether you realize it or not,

457
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 1: are actually colored and come through a lens of your

458
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: past history. Right, So, like if if you were raised

459
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: in a house where people your family members are really

460
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: critical of you and one another. If you see two

461
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: people in a corner like kind of like having a

462
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,920
Speaker 1: quiet conversation but laughing too, you're probably gonna think they're

463
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: laughing at you, even though they may not even be

464
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 1: paying the least bit of attention to you. But because

465
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: of the history of how you grew up, that's what

466
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: you're gonna guess at, right. Whereas if somebody was raised

467
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:40,400
Speaker 1: in a house where they were instilled with a lot

468
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,919
Speaker 1: of confidence and like a great sense of humor, that

469
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: person might just think, man, they must be talking about

470
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: something hilarious. I wish I knew what the joke was,

471
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: or they might have so much confidence in sense of

472
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:52,920
Speaker 1: humor they might even walk up and engage them and say,

473
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: what do you guys laughing at? Right? Huh? And if no, no, nothing,

474
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: never mind, then you may be onto something. Right. But

475
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,000
Speaker 1: there was the some there's this blog post and man,

476
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 1: I wish I could remember what the site was. I

477
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 1: apologize sight, but it was basically like stopped trying to

478
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,199
Speaker 1: read other people's minds was the gist of it. And

479
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: they actually used that example, and they went on to say, like,

480
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:18,399
Speaker 1: even if the person who thinks that that they're laughing

481
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: at them turns out to be right. That's not the

482
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 1: worst thing that can happen to you. Yeah, it's fine.

483
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: Who cares, you know, Like, like some people aren't gonna

484
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: like you, some people will. It doesn't really matter. Like

485
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 1: if somebody doesn't like you, You've got to have a

486
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: little more self confidence than the let that just completely

487
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: derail your day. Yeah, and you and you have to

488
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: find it within yourself, Yeah, for sure. And some people

489
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: get that through years of therapy. Some people are born

490
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:49,160
Speaker 1: with it. Some people never achieve it. Yeah, I think

491
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: it's you know, even if you are born with I

492
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:52,959
Speaker 1: think you can lose it from time to time. If

493
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,800
Speaker 1: you're not born with it, you can gain it from

494
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: time to time. But it's not something I think you

495
00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: have every moment of every day necessarily. Yeah. Boy, people

496
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: with just too much confidence are so annoying. They really

497
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,239
Speaker 1: are because everyone wants that, you know. I think that's

498
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 1: why it's annoying. Sure, just like, man, I wish I

499
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: could be that confident about everything. I hate that guy,

500
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: and then you end up in a corner talking to

501
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: somebody else about how much you hate that person with

502
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 1: so much confidence totally lost on the other person. So

503
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: I have another theory that's not scientific at all. It's

504
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: just my personal theory that when it comes to guessing things,

505
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: your own not well, your past experiences certainly influence it,

506
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: but your own how you are also influences like oh yeah,

507
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: like I think a liar is more apt to think

508
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:39,719
Speaker 1: people are lying to them precisely. Yeah, no, that's absolutely

509
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: I agree. I was gonna say it's absolutely true, but

510
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:44,959
Speaker 1: I agree with you. Yeah, because who knows. It's just

511
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 1: a theory, right, but I mean it's it's based it's

512
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: based on some pretty ancient folk wisdom, like that whole

513
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: thing about how um you know, when you're pointing a

514
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,719
Speaker 1: finger at somebody three fingers pointing at you or judge

515
00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: not lest you be judged. Like when you think about

516
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: people in that way, you think that they're doing the

517
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,720
Speaker 1: same thing to you, even when they're not. It's your own,

518
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 1: um hilarious little personal hell yeah, and it's not always that, Like,

519
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 1: you know, I think that dude's ripping me off. Maybe

520
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: you've been ripped off before and that's where that's coming from.

521
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: Or maybe you've ripped someone off before. But about one

522
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 1: of the two has happened, I think though, What more,

523
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 1: what you're what you're talking about is are like core

524
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: core character traits though, like judge, being judgmental, or being

525
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 1: a liar or um, you know, being a b s

526
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 1: or something like that. Like when when you do notice that, though,

527
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 1: What's great is there's so much room for growth when

528
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: you when you realize that that, like, wait a minute,

529
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: I think everybody's judging me because I'm so judgmental. I

530
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 1: need to work on being judgmental. What's what's almost magical

531
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: is that when you when you realize that and you

532
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: work on not being judgmental, you stop thinking that other

533
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 1: people are judging you, and your life is just freer. Well,

534
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: there are these uh so I cologists um and all

535
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: over this article that uh Aaliyah just rocked my world

536
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: with that wrote, and one of them was talking about

537
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 1: these interpretations without evidence. And her advice, which is very

538
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: simple and it seems like a no brainer though, is

539
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: to like maybe just focus on things you know to

540
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: be true and not inventing and surmising, like well what

541
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 1: if what if they're talking about this and you know

542
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: you're you're just kind of inventing all that? Like if

543
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: you concentrate on what you know to be true, then

544
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,240
Speaker 1: life gets a lot simpler, right, But that's that same

545
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: shrink also pointed out that one of the big problems

546
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: with guessing, and especially guessing incorrectly, is that, um, we

547
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: tend to forget that we're guessing at stuff. We take

548
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: our own guesses as as fact, and since they can

549
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: be so horribly wrong. Um, if you if you're guessing

550
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 1: that other people are judging you even when they're not, Uh,

551
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: you're gonna basically walk around feeling judged all the time

552
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 1: because you think that that's absolutely accurate when it's when

553
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,960
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily fascinating. All right, you want to take

554
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: a break. I was just gonna say the same thing.

555
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 1: All right, Well we'll take a break and we are

556
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: going to come back talk a little bit about guessing

557
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: on tests, how to win it rock paper scissors and

558
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 1: apes and guessing. M h. All right, So we we've

559
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 1: talked in esoteric terms about guessing so far. But I

560
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: think what everyone really wants to know is how do

561
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: I pass a multiple choice test? Right? Because that's another

562
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 1: kind of guessing. Um, it's you know, guessing runs the

563
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: gamut uh, from emotional to stuff like this. There or

564
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: have been different theories over the years, like well, first

565
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: of all, back in the day and I guess until

566
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: semi recently, for like the S A T and A

567
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: C T and other standardized tests, you would be penalized

568
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: for an incorrect guess. I don't remember that, do you. Yeah, yeah,

569
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: if you guess something wrong, it's like a quarter point deduction.

570
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: I think was the deal. Oh, it sounds familiar. I

571
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: think I may have blocked it out. But they don't

572
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: do that anymore. So now they say guest guest guests

573
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 1: if you don't know the answer, um, and you know

574
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 1: they're there. That has run the gamut from always guests

575
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 1: C because it's in the middle to uh, this one person.

576
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily agree with this one. But they say,

577
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 1: just choose the same letter every time, like always guess B,

578
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: and you're gonna be right one out of every five

579
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 1: times if it's A B, C, D right. Which makes

580
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 1: sense though, I mean, because if you jump around, you

581
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 1: lessen your chances every time, whereas if you use the

582
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: same one you have the same chances of getting it

583
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: right every time. Yeah. Um, but this guy wrote a

584
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 1: he actually did a little studying um, Paula pound Stone.

585
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,360
Speaker 1: That wasn't his name, was it. It was William pound Stone,

586
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 1: her brother. Yeah, and he did actual research on He

587
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:20,480
Speaker 1: studied tests and did a statistical analysis of one hundred

588
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:25,920
Speaker 1: different tests ranging from middle school, high school, college, professional exams,

589
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: driver's tests, firefighters, radio operators. He studied all kinds of

590
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 1: tests and he has four what he calls four ways

591
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 1: to outsmart to multiple choice tests, and a couple of

592
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 1: these make a lot of sense to me. The first one,

593
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,879
Speaker 1: he said, is to ignore conventional wisdom because you kind

594
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 1: of always have heard teachers say like avoid answers that

595
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: say never, always or none, So like all of the

596
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 1: above or none of the above, don't choose those, And

597
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: he found the opposite to be true. Yeah, he found

598
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 1: that none of the above or all of the above

599
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,839
Speaker 1: are correct of the time. Him. Yeah, So if that's

600
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:04,879
Speaker 1: offered up as an option, and you have, first of all,

601
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 1: we should couch this with always try and you know,

602
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: deduce the answer with intelligence, well yeah, pound Stone says,

603
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 1: there's nothing None of this is meant to replace knowledge

604
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 1: of your subject, and you get knowledge of your subject

605
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,239
Speaker 1: by studying ahead of time. But he's saying, if you're

606
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 1: facing a question on a multiple choice test and you

607
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: have no idea what the answer is you there's some

608
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,360
Speaker 1: techniques you can choose to to to increase the likelihood

609
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: that your guests will be right. Right, So all the

610
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: above or none of the above, if you really have

611
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 1: no idea about that, I would I would say pick

612
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:43,880
Speaker 1: that one. Um. That's weird though, because later on he

613
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,760
Speaker 1: says he says so first he says, ignore conventional wisdom,

614
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,840
Speaker 1: but then later on the one piece of conventional wisdom

615
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 1: I've always heard, um he says, is actually true. That

616
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,040
Speaker 1: is that you want to choose the longest answer on

617
00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:01,359
Speaker 1: any multiple choice test, right, Because if if you are

618
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 1: saying something's true, most of the time you have to

619
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: add qualifying language to make it absolutely true, because you

620
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:11,319
Speaker 1: don't want somebody come back and be like, well, that's

621
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: actually not quite true. So when you start adding qualifying

622
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 1: language into an answer, it gets longer than the other ones,

623
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: and the the test writers probably not going to go

624
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:25,399
Speaker 1: to the trouble of making the wrong answers similarly long.

625
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: So the longest answer is very frequently the correct answer. Yeah,

626
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:31,840
Speaker 1: I thought that one was a really good piece of advice.

627
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 1: That's the one I always heard. That's really the only

628
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 1: one I've ever known. Really, did you remember scantron sheets? Yeah?

629
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:44,439
Speaker 1: Did you ever? Were you ever so recklessly wild that

630
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: you like, made a Christmas tree out of a test?

631
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,719
Speaker 1: Did you ever have the gall to do that? Oh?

632
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,319
Speaker 1: I think never did bad because there are kids that

633
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 1: listen to this. But I had to take a test

634
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: one time that was not for school, but it was

635
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: something I didn't want to do. I won't get into

636
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:07,879
Speaker 1: the details, but I made a big snake and it

637
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: was bad. And I looked back and I'm ashamed of it.

638
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,839
Speaker 1: I made a mockery of their process. Uh. And I

639
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,920
Speaker 1: wasn't that kind of kid. I don't know what happened.

640
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:17,960
Speaker 1: I was generally a good kid and a good student.

641
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 1: I'm surprised to hear this, I know, but it sticks.

642
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: It's I feel so bad. It's still really stands out

643
00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 1: in my mind. Is what a jerk move that was

644
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 1: on my part. I'm not only surprised, though, Chuck, I'm

645
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:34,560
Speaker 1: a little delighted. Good a outed myself. Um alright, So

646
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,680
Speaker 1: one of the other pieces of advice from Dr pound Stone, Doctor,

647
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 1: I don't think he's no doctor. He did write a book, though,

648
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 1: it's called Rock Breaks Scissors colon. Why does everything you

649
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: have to have a colon? Now it makes it smarter?

650
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: Rock Breaks Scissors Colin a practical guide outguessing and outwitting

651
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 1: almost everybody. One of his other ones is to look

652
00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 1: at the surrounding answers because he's found the correct answer.

653
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:04,279
Speaker 1: Choices are rarely repeated consecutively, so you rarely get two

654
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:06,839
Speaker 1: b s in a row as the answer. So if

655
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 1: you definitely know the answer in front of it and

656
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: the answer behind it, then it's probably not one of

657
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,439
Speaker 1: those two. So if you've you've just whittled down your

658
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:20,840
Speaker 1: options yep. Advice No, not not bad at all. What else? Um?

659
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: And the last one he's got eliminate the outliers. If

660
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: there's anything that that seems like it doesn't really fit

661
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 1: with the rest of the stuff, you can automatically get

662
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: rid of that. And then conversely, if there's anything if

663
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 1: there are two answers that seem extremely close, they probably

664
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: can be gotten rid of as well, because it's the

665
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: same thing basically, So if you have say five, five

666
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,759
Speaker 1: potential answers, and one of them doesn't fit with the

667
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:51,800
Speaker 1: other four, get rid of that. Two of them are similar.

668
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 1: Get rid of those two. You're down to two. You

669
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: got a chance of getting at right. Yeah, I thought

670
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:58,799
Speaker 1: the example they used in here was pretty fascinating because

671
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: they didn't even use the question sen or give the

672
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,520
Speaker 1: question on this s a T practice test. They just

673
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 1: give the answer for A, B, C, D haphazard, uh

674
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 1: is too radical, inherent is to controversial, improvises to startling,

675
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 1: methodical is the revolutionary derivative is to gradual. And if

676
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: you just look at the right hand side, you have radical, controversial, startling, revolutionary,

677
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,399
Speaker 1: and gradual, and obviously gradual stands out is just being

678
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,480
Speaker 1: different than those other words. Right, radical, controversial, startling, revolutionary,

679
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,879
Speaker 1: gradual doesn't makes sense, right, So that makes I mean,

680
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:37,359
Speaker 1: that's really a good piece of advice. And then if

681
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:39,920
Speaker 1: you look on the left hand side for A and C,

682
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 1: haphazard and improvised are really close. So he says you

683
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: should eliminate those two as well. Yea, I wish I

684
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 1: would have had this kind of advice for the S

685
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:52,160
Speaker 1: A T. Well, I'll tell you what. That's an actual

686
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 1: s A T set of answers. So if you ever

687
00:39:54,840 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 1: run into haphazard, radical, inherent, controversial, improvised, startling, methodical revolutionary

688
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 1: and derivative gradual. You want to go with the methodical revolutionary,

689
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 1: and we just got you into college. You ever wanted

690
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,880
Speaker 1: to take the s A T again? Like? Now, no, no,

691
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:18,680
Speaker 1: that's funny. I really don't. I've never wanted to. I was.

692
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:21,279
Speaker 1: I've been glad since the moment I finished that test

693
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:23,719
Speaker 1: that I was done. I only took it twice. I

694
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:26,439
Speaker 1: took it once and I was like, good enough. Yeah,

695
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: I took it twice. I did not score very well

696
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,839
Speaker 1: the first time, and I scored pretty well the second time,

697
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:34,920
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't want to know which

698
00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:37,640
Speaker 1: one is the real me, I said, So I'm done. Yeah,

699
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: I scored blandly the first time, and I was like,

700
00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 1: that's fine, that's fine, that's fine. I'll get by on

701
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 1: my my wits and real life skills. Look at you.

702
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,520
Speaker 1: You've done great. I've done okay. Um, so you want

703
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,839
Speaker 1: to talk about rock paper scissors a little bit? Yeah?

704
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: I thought this was awesome. Our friends over at motherboard

705
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: and we can say that because we used to have

706
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:03,640
Speaker 1: a short lived call him on motherboard from vice yep um.

707
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: They have a German outfit called appropriately Motherboard Germany. And

708
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 1: they ran a post um called win at Rock paper

709
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 1: Scissors every Time with math colon what's with the colon's

710
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: And they basically got into how using game theory, you

711
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: can win at rock paper scissors basically all the time. Yeah,

712
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:28,800
Speaker 1: they did, uh, or they didn't do the research, but

713
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: they got together with some researchers at the University of

714
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: hang Zoo in China, and um, they got three hundred

715
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:42,280
Speaker 1: and sixties students to pair up and play three hundred

716
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 1: rounds each of rock paper scissors. Uh. And then they

717
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:51,200
Speaker 1: tracked that please please let us stop, and they said, no,

718
00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 1: this is communist China. Do it again again. Uh. So

719
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 1: they charted all those out and then summarized it with

720
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,520
Speaker 1: some strategies. I don't know if this would you would

721
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:07,480
Speaker 1: win every time? No, I mean there's always like the

722
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:10,719
Speaker 1: what they call in rock paper says, there's the October

723
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:14,560
Speaker 1: surprise where somebody just pulls something out of nowhere. Well,

724
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:20,279
Speaker 1: so I mean a kid dynamite, right, Yeah, those are

725
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 1: off shoots. Remember kids that would do those? Oh really yeah,

726
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 1: some interesting people. Yeah, they would add other other weapons. Basically, well,

727
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:36,759
Speaker 1: the the um this the Motherboard article talks about UM,

728
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 1: there's this other guy who came up with, um, a

729
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:44,400
Speaker 1: whole different variation of it. That's like five or twenty

730
00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:47,759
Speaker 1: six different different possible ones. I would never remember all

731
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:50,839
Speaker 1: of them, No, how could you? But at least one

732
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:54,719
Speaker 1: guy does. No one can remember things, yeah right, but

733
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,359
Speaker 1: so so okay, there's a few things. And this this

734
00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 1: falls in line with learning how to get better at guessing, um,

735
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: how many jelly beans are in a jar. If you

736
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:06,759
Speaker 1: arm yourself with a little bit of fore knowledge, you

737
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 1: can better guess at what your opponent's gonna come at you.

738
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,439
Speaker 1: Within a game of rock paper scissors. Starting with that,

739
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,719
Speaker 1: men tend to open a game with rock. Of course

740
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:20,520
Speaker 1: they do. Yeah, that's such a man thing, rock smash,

741
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 1: you know, right, So if you're if your opponent as

742
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 1: a man, um and there's a pretty good chance they're

743
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:32,239
Speaker 1: going to come out with rock the first time, go paper. Yeah,

744
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:36,120
Speaker 1: although they do say statistically the opening uh scissors is

745
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: the one that will win you the most games. But

746
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 1: I guess that's if you're not playing a man. I

747
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 1: guess they kind of counteract themselves or contradict themselves statistically.

748
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 1: More women play rock paper scissors, I guess is that true.

749
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:53,080
Speaker 1: Here's what I thought. I don't think. So here's one.

750
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 1: I've been making a lot of this stuff up in

751
00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 1: this episode. Um, here's here's one that I thought was

752
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:01,920
Speaker 1: kind of funny. Basically, this is like the Babe Ruth move,

753
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,399
Speaker 1: say what you're going to pick before the game, Like,

754
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick scissors next, and then the persons like,

755
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 1: they're not gonna pick scissors, but you just psyched them out.

756
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:14,560
Speaker 1: And when you throw scissors, baby, they're gonna be blown

757
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:16,920
Speaker 1: away because they threw paper and they thought you were

758
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: gonna throw rocky. It's like that the Princess Bride. And

759
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 1: what part was that with the man sitting at the

760
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 1: place talking about the poison drink? Oh yeah, yeah, remember

761
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:30,520
Speaker 1: like trying to get the other guy to drink the

762
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 1: poison drink? I wish Yeah, he was awesome. Uh inconceivable?

763
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:41,880
Speaker 1: What is another strategy? Um to counter attacks? So if

764
00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:45,400
Speaker 1: you played scissors and your opponent plays rock on the

765
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:49,040
Speaker 1: first move, uh, and they win, obviously the chance that

766
00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 1: they h they have confidence now in that move, so

767
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:54,640
Speaker 1: you might be able to guess that they will play

768
00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:57,480
Speaker 1: rock again because the chances are pretty high that they

769
00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 1: will do. So, then you anticipate that play paper. So

770
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: basically it says, play the option that wasn't played in

771
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:07,360
Speaker 1: the previous round. Right, And you can also mirror um

772
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:11,399
Speaker 1: your opponent. Right, So if you just one around, play

773
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:15,720
Speaker 1: what your opponent just played, because they probably are thinking

774
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:18,360
Speaker 1: that you're going to play with the same gesture that

775
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 1: you won with a second ago, really throws them off.

776
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,319
Speaker 1: So the idea is they're probably going to play the

777
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,839
Speaker 1: same thing that they just won with and if you

778
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:30,839
Speaker 1: one don't do that, and that'll frustrate them to that's

779
00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:36,480
Speaker 1: the rock paper scissors version of why you're hitting yourself.

780
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:38,600
Speaker 1: If you get into that thing when you're you both

781
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:40,560
Speaker 1: throw rock, and you throw rock again, you both throw

782
00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: a rock and you keep that's when the psychological warfare starts,

783
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:48,000
Speaker 1: like who's gonna break first and go with paper and

784
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,640
Speaker 1: then ideally you go with scissors and you have thus

785
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:59,280
Speaker 1: outsmarted your opponent. Right. So interesting, So we were talking, Um,

786
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 1: you mentioned that we were going to talk about apes, right, Yeah,

787
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: I didn't fully understand this, so maybe you can help me.

788
00:46:05,960 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: I don't know that um that science fully understands it.

789
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:14,160
Speaker 1: But basically so so let me give you an example here. Okay,

790
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 1: we were talking about how the brain. They're trying to

791
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:19,600
Speaker 1: figure out what regions of the brain are activated to

792
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 1: form like this cascade of thought that results in a guess. Right.

793
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,440
Speaker 1: One of the things I ran across was one theory

794
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,239
Speaker 1: of how we guess what other people are going to

795
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:35,560
Speaker 1: do UM is through mirror neurons, where if we see

796
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: somebody doing something, our mirror neurons are activated and it

797
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: puts us in a mind of how we feel when

798
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 1: we're doing something, and we use that past experience and

799
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:50,240
Speaker 1: that current sensation of Like the example I ran across

800
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 1: with somebody grabbing an apple to guess what the person

801
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:57,319
Speaker 1: is going to do next. Right, So you would say, um, well,

802
00:46:57,360 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: I know most times when I grab an apple, I

803
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 1: take a bye it out of it because I'm usually hungry.

804
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:03,600
Speaker 1: When I grab an apple, that's after I rub it

805
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:05,879
Speaker 1: on my shirt to give it a nice shine. Right. Well,

806
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 1: that's that's just showboating. If you're gonna if you guess

807
00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 1: the person is going to rub it on their shirt

808
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:13,439
Speaker 1: first before taking a bite, that's showing off. But that's

809
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 1: so your mirror neurons are the part of your brain

810
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:19,399
Speaker 1: that's triggered that that um that that sets that off right.

811
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 1: That gives you that the basis the foundation for making

812
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 1: a guess of what the person is going to do next.

813
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:29,040
Speaker 1: And then it gets run through again that lens of

814
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 1: your past experience, your history, everything from how you were

815
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 1: raised to what you do with apples, to what you've

816
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 1: seen other people do with apples, and you come up

817
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:42,280
Speaker 1: with a short list of possibilities of what the person

818
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:44,680
Speaker 1: is going to do with that apple, and it includes

819
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:48,080
Speaker 1: rubbating out on their shirt, taking a bite, putting it

820
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,319
Speaker 1: away in a cupboard, throwing it at a wall. And

821
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: then you're going to pare down based on what you

822
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,840
Speaker 1: know about that person, like is that person neat freak?

823
00:47:56,920 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: If so, they're probably going to put that apple away

824
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 1: in a cupboard, which who does that except for neat freaks?

825
00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: And you may be right at at your guess, right, well,

826
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 1: they're definitely not wall throwers at least right right, because

827
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:15,520
Speaker 1: yeah so if and that's that's how you that's how

828
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: Apparently that's one theory for how we make guesses, starting

829
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:21,240
Speaker 1: from brain based, going through personal history and then making

830
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:25,360
Speaker 1: the guests. And what some research found was that the

831
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:29,160
Speaker 1: ultimately what we're doing here is called theory of mind

832
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:34,719
Speaker 1: right where we are have a capability of bestowing the

833
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:38,320
Speaker 1: idea that other people have thoughts and feelings on other people,

834
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,279
Speaker 1: right that we it's so common to us that we

835
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 1: take it for granted that we can attribute mental states

836
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:49,319
Speaker 1: to other people. But that's that's a pretty significant thing.

837
00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:52,000
Speaker 1: And for a very long time researchers thought that just

838
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: humans were capable of of that. But they found out

839
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: that no, actually some apes at the very least just

840
00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:02,000
Speaker 1: apes um and do the same thing. They can attribute

841
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:05,800
Speaker 1: mental states like thoughts and feelings and emotions to other

842
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 1: apes UM. And that's that shows like a higher form

843
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:13,799
Speaker 1: of reasoning. That was basically the gist of it. That

844
00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:16,920
Speaker 1: makes sense, And they found that true in chimpanzees, bonobo's

845
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 1: and orangutangs. H. That's pretty neat, it is, and one

846
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:27,560
Speaker 1: of them so sa UM. Sasha Barren Cohen, his cousin

847
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:31,960
Speaker 1: Simon Barren Cohen is one of the leaders in UM

848
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 1: in theory of mind. Yeah, we've talked about him before,

849
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:38,239
Speaker 1: I remember, but UM. One of the one of the

850
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:42,759
Speaker 1: big areas that it like influences is autism. UM that

851
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: that people with autism tend to have more difficulty attributing

852
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:51,399
Speaker 1: mental states and theory of mind to other people than

853
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:55,239
Speaker 1: people who don't have autism. Right, And but one of

854
00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 1: the one of the ways that they find this out,

855
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 1: and I think one of the ways that they detect

856
00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:02,239
Speaker 1: autism and young kids is by attributing false beliefs to

857
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:05,360
Speaker 1: other people. This is like an early part of human development.

858
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:08,800
Speaker 1: And apparently apes are good at it too. Where you

859
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:12,319
Speaker 1: are an observer, right, and you're watching a scene and

860
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:16,200
Speaker 1: there's a little boy named Tommy, and Tommy comes in

861
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 1: the room and he grabs the three Musketeers off of

862
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:21,720
Speaker 1: the kitchen counter, and he walks over to a chest

863
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 1: of drawers and he puts it in one of the

864
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:27,080
Speaker 1: drawers and walks out of the room. Well, Sally comes in,

865
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 1: and the narrator says, Sally is really hungry for three musketeers.

866
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 1: She knows it was last on the table. Where is

867
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:38,360
Speaker 1: she going to look for the three Musketeers? And people

868
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:41,520
Speaker 1: with um with theory of mine, who are able to

869
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:44,840
Speaker 1: attribute false beliefs to other people will say, well, Sally

870
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:47,479
Speaker 1: is gonna go look on the table even though it's

871
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: not there any longer, because Tommy put it in the drawer.

872
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 1: You can know that Sally can believe something that's no

873
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 1: longer correct if you have trouble with theory of mind,

874
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:02,400
Speaker 1: and specifically if you're testing for autism, um that child,

875
00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 1: a child with autism might say, well, Sally's gonna go

876
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: look in the drawer, because that's where it is. They

877
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:10,400
Speaker 1: have trouble attributing false beliefs to people. What's true is

878
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:13,879
Speaker 1: true and everybody would know that. And that's one way

879
00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:15,680
Speaker 1: that they test for autism. And it has to do

880
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:19,799
Speaker 1: a theory of mine. Interesting, isn't it. And it has

881
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: to do with guessing. It all has to do with guessing. Man,

882
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 1: you got anything else? Well, just that Tommy should uh

883
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:31,840
Speaker 1: not be so uh touchy? Well, yeah, and like share

884
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 1: the three Musketeers, Yeah, you go around. Do you know

885
00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: why three Musketeers are called that? I have no idea,

886
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:42,520
Speaker 1: my friend. It used to be a Neopolitan candy that

887
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:46,959
Speaker 1: came in three different pieces, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, and

888
00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:50,879
Speaker 1: they just went with chocolate after a while and kept

889
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:55,960
Speaker 1: the name because why not. Yeah. Interesting, Well, that's it

890
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:59,560
Speaker 1: about three Musketeers for today. And hey, Chuck, before we

891
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:02,840
Speaker 1: go to listener mail, I want to give a huge

892
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:08,280
Speaker 1: congratulations from us to Stephen and Jane, our buddies, the Bars,

893
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: on the birth of their firstborn child. Yeah, how about that.

894
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:16,439
Speaker 1: Congratulations you guys. Good looking baby too. Yeah? Is they're

895
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 1: not all good looking? No, No, it's true, especially like

896
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:23,840
Speaker 1: right after birth. And because they're New Yorkers, they walked

897
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 1: home from the hospital. Like, how great is that they

898
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 1: I'm surprised they didn't take the subway, but what you do?

899
00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 1: It is they are pretty New York. It's awesome. But congratulations.

900
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:38,280
Speaker 1: It's one congratulations Bars. Okay, well, since we said congratulations Bars,

901
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:42,840
Speaker 1: it's time for listener mail. Yeah, this one was a

902
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 1: little long, but it's about registering to vote in Texas.

903
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:49,800
Speaker 1: You got an email for Monica and her story goes

904
00:52:49,920 --> 00:52:53,040
Speaker 1: as such, Uh, two thousand thirteen to move from Alabama

905
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 1: to Texas. Had a really horrific time trying to register

906
00:52:55,600 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 1: to vote where I went to the county clerk's office.

907
00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:00,000
Speaker 1: I looked online to check what I needed, downloaded the

908
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:02,440
Speaker 1: application so I could have filled out in advance. It

909
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:07,040
Speaker 1: took my Alabama driver's license, my lease, my birth certificate,

910
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:11,479
Speaker 1: and because I'm divorced, my divorce decree stipulating my legal

911
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,320
Speaker 1: name change. You'd probably think that would be else you needed,

912
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:17,200
Speaker 1: right right, no. No. Once I got there, I was

913
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 1: told that the lease was not sufficient to prove residency

914
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:21,759
Speaker 1: and that I would need to bring two pieces of

915
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:25,319
Speaker 1: official mail, like utility bill, tax bill. So I leave

916
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:27,080
Speaker 1: after spending the better part of a day waiting in

917
00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:30,080
Speaker 1: line waiting UH for my power and gas bill to

918
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:32,200
Speaker 1: come in order to add the other documents. A couple

919
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:34,280
Speaker 1: of weeks later, with all of the documents in hand,

920
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:36,759
Speaker 1: I took another day off work went back to try again.

921
00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 1: This time, the clerk looks over the divorce decree and

922
00:53:39,719 --> 00:53:42,840
Speaker 1: notices my name change wasn't to go back to my

923
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 1: maiden name. This was a name change that was ordered

924
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,520
Speaker 1: by a court in Alabama and explicitly spelled out in

925
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,239
Speaker 1: a notarized document that the clerk was disputing its validity.

926
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 1: When I asked what the problem was, he said, well,

927
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 1: that's in Alabama. If you want to that to be

928
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 1: your official name in Texas, you have to go through

929
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:05,840
Speaker 1: the courts. UH, have a a draw at noon in

930
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,319
Speaker 1: the center of town with a judge, a shootout. What's

931
00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:12,759
Speaker 1: that called a shot? A quick draw? Now, he said,

932
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 1: you'll have to go through the courts and have it

933
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,680
Speaker 1: declared here in Texas. After literally blinking at him silently

934
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: with my mouth agape for a moment, I said, you're

935
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:22,320
Speaker 1: telling me that the divorce in Alabama is a valid

936
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,920
Speaker 1: because it was judicated in Alabama, that I am going

937
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:26,720
Speaker 1: to have to go through the whole process of getting

938
00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 1: a divorce again for it to be official in Texas.

939
00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 1: That correct. His reply was, well, when you put it

940
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 1: that way, it sounds silly, but yes, though. I demanded

941
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:37,279
Speaker 1: to speak with a supervisor. Clark got the supervisor, who

942
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:39,839
Speaker 1: looked over everything and asked why I didn't just go

943
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:43,160
Speaker 1: back to my maiden name, which I replied, it doesn't

944
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:45,759
Speaker 1: matter what I changed my name to. You have the

945
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 1: official document, signed by a judge and notarized, and this

946
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 1: should be all you need because of the Constitution of

947
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: the United States that all judicial rulings and contracts that

948
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,560
Speaker 1: are valid one state are valid in every state. At

949
00:54:59,600 --> 00:55:02,959
Speaker 1: that point, the clerk walked off. The supervisor said, okay,

950
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:05,840
Speaker 1: gave my stuff to another clerk who simply smiled to

951
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:09,120
Speaker 1: enter my application and took my check, uh, pointing me

952
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:11,680
Speaker 1: toward the desk where I could get my picture taken. Uh.

953
00:55:11,719 --> 00:55:14,000
Speaker 1: And then she closes by saying, imagine how this would

954
00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:16,279
Speaker 1: have gone. I would have been an hourly worker, had

955
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:19,600
Speaker 1: less of an understanding boss and not known about the

956
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,720
Speaker 1: ins and outs of the constitution, or didn't have access

957
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:24,799
Speaker 1: to all these documents. Chances are I would have been

958
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,839
Speaker 1: disenfranchised driving around with an expired license. These laws are

959
00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:32,920
Speaker 1: absolutely created to suppress voter registration and participation, and they

960
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:39,640
Speaker 1: work spectacularly well man, And that is Monica's story. Thanks Monica,

961
00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:44,320
Speaker 1: uh and welcome to Texas too. By the way, Yeah Um.

962
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:46,520
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with this and

963
00:55:46,520 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: tell us a real life adventure that has something to

964
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:51,359
Speaker 1: do with one of our episodes, we want to hear

965
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,920
Speaker 1: about it, you can tweet to us. I'm at josh

966
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,200
Speaker 1: Um Clark and at s y s K podcast on Twitter.

967
00:55:57,880 --> 00:55:59,879
Speaker 1: You can hang out with Chuck at Charles W. Chuck

968
00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 1: Ran on Facebook or at Facebook dot com slash Stuff

969
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:04,800
Speaker 1: you Should Know. You can send us an email the

970
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:07,359
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast at how Stuff Works dot com and has

971
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:09,600
Speaker 1: always joined us at at home on the web. Stuff

972
00:56:09,600 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 1: you Should Know dot Com. Stuff you Should Know is

973
00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more

974
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:19,479
Speaker 1: podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio, app,

975
00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:22,160
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

976
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:25,400
Speaker 1: H