![]() Assume that guessing the correct weight is important to the group. ![]() Note that everyone - except the target - in this scenario knows the weight of the iron block.Ĭonsider we still have the iron block, but no one knows the weight. A good laugh is had, and the target is drafted into the group as they wait for the next target. They were free to choose a weight representative of what they thought and could have gone with what they knew to be (likely) true. The ruse is immediately evident to the target, but the cost is fairly low, and the target can’t really complain that much. Let’s talk a bit about the iron block and what happened.īasically, everyone agreed to lie to - or, if you prefer, to mislead -an individual for the gain of the group. There were other lessons while I worked there, some of them not pleasant, but it was all an invaluable education. Three, they all had more seniority than I had and I accorded them a measure of “knowing” better than me. Two, I didn’t want to be the one to be way off from the “norm” of the group, to be an outlier. One, everyone else seemed fairly sure about their opinion. I guessed high because the discussion made me unsure of what I knew, and it made me unsure because of three reasons. It consistently worked, and yes, it worked on me. He probably knew the block didn’t weigh a pound but still guessed high because of what he heard. You see, he was swayed by hearing other people in the group guess high. His guess was high by at least four or five ounces. The block was eight ounces, and everyone was within a few ounces of the actual weight. The one farthest from the actual weight would buy coffee for everyone.Īnd so we did that each person wrote their guess on a piece of paper which they folded and carried down to the scale, we weighed the block, and then each would show what they wrote down. Everyone would write down their guess for the weight, and we would then march down to the lab to weigh the block. This would go on for a few minutes, and then the discussion would turn into a bet. “No, no I think it’s closer to one pound,” a third person would say. “More like twenty ounces,” another person would say. We’d lift the block, heft it in our hands, look pensive and throw out a weight. If we had a newcomer, we would casually steer the conversation toward how much the block weighed. For instance, there was this thing we did with a small iron block. ![]() I’m referring to learning things about people. I’m not speaking about professional learning - engineering stuff and the like - although there was some of that as well. Main navigation MenuĬadillac Motors (January 1978 – August 1983) was a good learning ground for me. Photography, Fiction, Travel, and Opinions. ![]()
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