Each person in a group picks a number from 0 to 100. But here’s how they pick: Their number is their guess as to what two-thirds of the average guess will be. (If the average of all guesses was 60 and you guessed 40, you’d win.)
What’s your most logical guess? Assume that everyone guessing has mastered the mental zen of game theory.
Debunked: The Happy Herd
Many fish flashing as a coordinated school is a beautiful example of group cooperation against predators. Right?
Evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton offered another explanation: The fish that most successfully mimics the movements of those around it never pops out the center of the school. And the center is the safest. So a fish school’s coordination is due to many individuals working in their own self-interest, rather than to any groovy melding of fishy minds for the common good.
Get Over It: The End of Shame
Shame has a distinct evolutionary purpose: You’ve acted against social norms and thus rent the very fabric of society on which human civilization depends (not to be overly dramatic or anything), and it’s shame that brings you back in line.
When shame reaches a certain level, you internalize it, start to consider yourself a bad apple, and can effectively prune your malignant self from the social tree (“I can never show my face in that bar ever again!”). This can be debilitating. More adaptive is to turn outward and sally forth into society to repair the rip you created. Only by repairing social connections—by apologizing or otherwise making amends—can you truly root out shame.
Genius Tester #6: Four Squares Problem
Reposition two and only two sticks to make four squares of equal size, with no sticks left over.
Courtesy of John DiPrete at www.mindbluff.com.
