I will discuss riddles, ways to solve them, and framing. Here is the riddle: A group of people stumble across a body. After examining the corpse, the group notes that the body is missing internal organs, but maintains that the victim died a natural death. What is the people's occupation, and in what country did they find the body? (answer will be at the bottom of this post)
Now, how would one go about solving this? There are 3 different approaches when it comes to problem solving: Algorithms, Heuristics, and Insight. An algorithm is a methodical, logical rule that guarantees a solution. Would you use an algorithm to try and solve this riddle?
Heuristics are educated guesses made from experience. Most likely you decided that you wouldn't use an algorithm, so perhaps a heuristic is the way to go. Did you at first try to use an algorithm?
Next we have insight, which is an AHA! moment, where the answer seems to just come to you in a flash of genius. Maybe the answer just came to you?
Think- if you solved the riddle without peaking at the answer, how did you first approach this problem?
The answer is -the people are archaeologists in Egypt who have just found a mummy.
If you didn't get the answer- what stopped you? Were you so focused on it being what you thought, based off other experience, that you couldn't get it?
It is interesting to note that sometimes we try and overcomplicate- we might say that the police found a man who had died in sleep but was missing his kidney or tonsils. Or something. The way this riddle was phrased didn't give anyone reason to think of Egypt and archaeologists- we try and leap to something drastic. It is a dead body! The way we frame riddles, and other things in life, can change the outcome entirely. For instance, the riddle Mrs. Perl gave about the father and son in the crash, and the mother surgeon. She stressed dad and son, and because we already don't tend to think of women as surgeons, we never guessed the mom!
If you tell someone "You're idea is stupid and dumb, I hate it!" they might get mad, but if you say "Maybe we can do something a little different, because I disagree with the idea," the person won't get mad. A doctor should say you have 90% chance of living rather than a 10% chance of dying, because although it is the same thing, how we word things makes a difference!
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Honestly, I did not get the answer to the riddle. The whole time I wanted to scroll down and see what the answer was, but I didn't. Also, it is so true how much wording affects things. I find it almost impossible to retell an event without exaggerating/undermining certain details, etc. Even the smallest changes in a story can give off the total wrong message and sometimes results in unnecessary drama. Where I find this issue the worst is through chatting online or through text. When we text we frequently talk in short which can give off the wrong vibe and result in misunderstanding. Sometimes it is hard because you think you are doing everything right, and then you find out that the other person took it the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteexcellent riddle zahava!
i think taht my problem was teh fact taht i was so focused on teh riddle having to do with one thing and having to be a certain way taht i simply got stuck and couldnt keep going to try to solve this problem!belief perseverance and confirmation bias prevented me from finding teh actual answer! Thsi shows how so many things can get in our way when we attempt to solve a problem!