Logic, math & statistics puzzle...that holds some wonderful lessons!

[adrianh]

Oh for f*ck sake, are you 10 years old, don't you have anything better to do with your time than whinge about what I think.

Ok, I am sorry that you do not agree with me when I say that I think you are narrow-minded. - Are you happy now, I apologized!

The thread is not about you anyway, it is about how our minds work under certain circumstances. You don't have to agree, disagree or even care about the thread but at least stick to the damn thing without getting your tits in a knot about bullcrap!

[adrianh]

You know, I did learn something from this lot; I shouldn't think that because I found something that I read interesting that anybody else will look at it as merely a curiosity but rather that they will look at it as being either an insult to their intelligence or an ego trip on my part.

Anyway, take it, leave it, its your choice, I just thought that it was interesting.

Mr Houses4Rent - I apologize for insulting you and I hope that you have a wonderful life.
vieome - eish....

I have nothing further to say about this thread!

[vieome]

Watch from 4 minutes on

[Marq]

Well I found it interesting.

I saw a few more common human type traits here:-

• People do not read questions properly - probably glance through words and make up own conclusions/assumptions as to what is being said.
• Guess work is a big factor in answering something that is not clear to what the answer could be.
• When the answer is made obvious and is simple, some people get upset, throw accusations and try and externalise something that actually is an internal problem -Sort of like the blame game.

[HR Solutions]

I got it right away ............ I didn't guess ........... am I also narrow minded ?

No seriously - Im just trying to put light on the situation. H4R ..... don't worry about Adrian ...... he's a poepal .. but don't think he meant any harm by it.

[Christel]

I've also found this thread interesting... maybe you can throw in something like this again Adrian?
I also enjoy all the comments. Makes me laugh - I also enjoyed the Horse Racing tipster thread... ha ha ha!!
It's like Adrian said, it's only his opinion and you don't have to live by it. Read it, make a note if you want, but move on. I did not see his comment as an insult.

[adrianh]

Another lesson of course is to never speak early on a Monday morning and of course not to get annoyed by people.

I was telling my brother about this incident and he said a wonderful thing; "One should not waste too much energy on people who haven't moved beyond thinking with their egos"

The reason the puzzle caught my attention is because I fell into the exact same trap, so did my very bright daughter and very bright wife. The only person that had a totally different strategy was my GP (We are good friends and speak about a lot of interesting stuff) I read two very interesting books written by Dan Ariely "Predictably Irrational" and "The upside of irrationality" It clearly show how we think that we are logical but how we act irrationally. Our programming seems to make most of us act irrationally in very similar ways. Good marketers know this and use it without us knowing it. It's not subliminal messages or anything like that, it is really how we say one thing but do something else because our conscious evaluation of a situation is simply worlds apart from our subconscious evaluation. Think about love; we have this ideal in our conscious minds yet we fall in love with a person for totally different reasons and even totally different looks. Another interesting statement that people sometimes make is: "I love him but I do not like him"...hmmm seems two brains, subconscious and conscious are on two different wavelengths.

I am totally fascinated by this sort of thing and I've read many books about the way we think we think. The numbers puzzle comes from a book that I am currently reading called "The art of thinking clearly" by Rolf Dobelli. It is a very small white book available from Exclusives for about R200. The guy writes in a very concise way and shows in 99 short essays how our thinking machines are programmed badly. The reason for this is probably because our programming is done socially and we simply accept thought patterns that the masses use simply because we don't think about how we think.

I am very aware of my own thought patterns and question them all the time. I do this because I've battled with my brain all my life so I've had to learn how the silly thing works...doesn't work most of the time.

You should look up TED talks on TED.com and watch lots of the talks especially Dan Ariely and Sir Kenneth Robinson and if you want to totally blow your mind and see how most of us are predictably programmed the watch this video:

[vieome]

I agree 100%. It is interesting to know how the brain and mind works.


(According to Google)
The 2-4-6 task shows us our

Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. In addition, individuals may discredit information that does not support their views.[26] The confirmation bias is related to the concept of cognitive dissonance. Whereby, individuals may reduce inconsistency by searching for information which re-confirms their views (Jermias, 2001, p. 146).[27]

It is a confirmation bias that makes us label someone who does not get a joke we tell as having no sense of humor.

Reality itself is a mental construction based on communication, and our social nature dictates that we surround ourselves with people who validate our point of view.

The people who disagree with us, are not necessary our enemies, and could serve us better by challenging our preconceptions.

It is simply my interest in the Brain and Mind that makes me want to discuss such cognitive bias, as they affect us daily, however I do understand, that in a social context, People will rise to defend those they rub post with daily. My point was simply just because we become aware of a bias, doe not mean we automatically rise above it.

Daniel Kahneman author of "Thinking, Fast and Slow" which deals with cognitive biases tells us, " Just because I have written on, and developed this understanding of our thinking, I am still fail to over rule my own biases".

[adrianh]

I am sometimes able to catch myself when I fall into these thinking traps and I try and avoid them. We are hardly ever critical of our own thinking and it is difficult to do if we come up against our own egos. What I mean is this; when we look at our own performance in business and it is bad we tend to feel depressed and worthless yet the underlying problem is most often a poor understanding of what it takes to do business. By the same token we also feel like superheroes when things go well yet we do not check to make sure that it is simply due to blind luck.

I am able to think analytically and logically but my biggest failing is that I have ZERO EQ. My wife and kids are sort of used to it but it gets on their nerves sometimes. It just p1$$es the rest of the world off. I've never had any understanding whatsoever of the emotional dance that is played by people.

Maybe we should start an EQ thread and talk about such things. When the wife asks me what the food is like I have been told that "k@k" is not the right answer :-) or the answer to the question "Would you like coffee?" is not "Yes" but rather "Yes please" ...I've learned over the years that "Yes dear" is often a good answer :-) But seriously, there is a lot to be said for reaching people via EQ because we all (me included) will happily cut off our own (logical) noses if we think/feel that the other persons EQ/towards us is off. I find it difficult to do business with people when I think that they are a$$holes. My thinking that they are a$$holes is 90% of the time on a sort of warped EQ level. Think about it, somebody gets the better of you in a deal once and you vow never to do business with them again (The right answer would be to make sure that you have all the bases covered no matter who you do business with) It's extremely hard to operate on a balanced IQ/EQ level. If you operate purely on an IQ level with no EQ then you are considered to be a psychopath (which many successful people are) but if you are too emotional then it is also no good. Where does the balance lie?

[HR Solutions]

Yep Adrian - with todays generation EQ is very important in business. The way the younger generation look at things sometimes is VERY different to old school, incentives are different etc etc- every young person looks at the job differently with a total different EQ and its up to management to handle them accordingly.