The Most Common Cognitive Bias

Sdílet
Vložit
  • čas přidán 23. 02. 2014
  • Can you figure out the rule?
    Did you see the exponents pattern? • Proponents of Exponents
    Why do you make people look stupid? bit.ly/12Fmlpl
    How do you investigate hypotheses? Do you seek to confirm your theory - looking for white swans? Or do you try to find black swans? I was startled at how hard it was for people to investigate number sets that didn't follow their hypotheses, even when their method wasn't getting them anywhere.
    In the video I say "when people came to Australia..." by which I meant, "when Europeans who believed all swans were white came to Australia..." I did not mean any offence to Indigenous Australians who were already in Australia at that time. Please accept my apologies for the poor phrasing if you were offended by it.
    This video was inspired by The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb and filmed by my mum. Thanks mum!
    Partly my motivation came from responses to my Facebook videos - social media marketers saying 'Facebook ads have worked for me so there can't be fake likes.' Just because you have only seen white swans, doesn't mean there are no black ones. And in fact marketers are only looking for white swans. They think it was invalid of me to make the fake Virtual Cat page: 'well of course if it's a low quality page you're going to get low quality likes.' But my point is this is black swan bait, something they would never make because their theory is confident in the exclusive existence of white swans.

Komentáře • 23K

  • @themonsteraddictmmxvi1564
    @themonsteraddictmmxvi1564 Před 2 lety +27308

    "If you think something is true, try really hard to disprove it" took your advice. I'm single now. Booyah

    • @TNXaro
      @TNXaro Před 2 lety +344

      😂

    • @skiney
      @skiney Před 2 lety +163

      Lmaooo

    • @nakumavecaan254
      @nakumavecaan254 Před 2 lety +1645

      Then comes the question: What kind of single are you? Odd number or whole digit?

    • @TNXaro
      @TNXaro Před 2 lety +385

      @@nakumavecaan254
      Lmao, that's the perfect response

    • @alexj.denton7453
      @alexj.denton7453 Před 2 lety +48

      Thats how I became a huge antisemite

  • @nineflames12
    @nineflames12 Před 4 lety +40528

    “Multiplying by 2 is not my rule”
    *Everyone proceeds to continue proposing numbers doubling.*

    • @0_-
      @0_- Před 4 lety +116

      @@starfiring ?

    • @0_-
      @0_- Před 4 lety +39

      @@dariusnoname12 I still don't get it?

    • @0_-
      @0_- Před 4 lety +85

      @@dariusnoname12 OHHHHH I GET IT NOW!

    • @0_-
      @0_- Před 4 lety +54

      @@dariusnoname12 THANKS

    • @jackie98543
      @jackie98543 Před 4 lety +18

      That isn’t multiplying by two

  • @Jnadki
    @Jnadki Před rokem +400

    I've used this same game with my students. Providing a sequence was the equivalent of doing an "experiment". At any point when they thought they knew the answer, they could be first to "publish" their hypothesis, but the game could still go on, with others performing more "experiments". Students gradually recognized the principle that one could learn more from trying to disprove their hypotheses than to confirm them. Afterwards, we'd talk about how this applied to doing actual scientific research. Years later I had students tell me they still remember that principle in designing their own experiments.

    • @zzzaphod8507
      @zzzaphod8507 Před 10 měsíci +5

      Reminds me of the card game Eleusis

    • @Jnadki
      @Jnadki Před 10 měsíci +4

      @@zzzaphod8507 Hadn't heard of it, but indeed it sounds similar. Thanks.

    • @d-rockanomaly9243
      @d-rockanomaly9243 Před měsícem +1

      I love when teachers would make a game like that but turn it into sort of role playing as actual professionals.
      My one teacher did this with the stock market in grade 7. and he had a bunch of guests come in and pretend to be business owners that would pitch us their business ideas, we walked around the room by ourselves to each business owner. We'd get a bunch of chips and could invest them in whoever we wanted and there were several rounds. And the situation for each business would change with each business every round, and we could redistribute our investments and their stock price would change every round. Then we'd tally our profits, or losses at rhe end. The results would sort of follow basic principles, like the shady, greedy big shot companies ended up tanking, the hard-working mom and pop store turned out great, but also he threw in a few unexpected results, and then some just turned out how they seemed they would, and then there were hard truths as well, like some of the shady businesses would do good... He did a good job at showing the seemingly random aspect of investing in hindsight.
      But honestly i think your game is better. it teaches a fundamental principle which ironically are sometimes the harder things for prople to wrap their minds around. The stock market game just taught how a certain system works which is good to know... But its when people misunderstand fundamental, encompassing principles like scientific method, that ideas like flat earth arise.
      In any case, games like that were fun as hell in school lol you sound like a great teacher.

  • @susieusmaximus5330
    @susieusmaximus5330 Před rokem +674

    The thing is, the only honest answer to, "Do you have this cognitive bias?", almost whatever it turns out to be, is "Yes." You overcome cognitive biases by recognizing that you have them and being aware of that and compensating for it to the best of your ability, and especially by being willing to admit that in some instance you might have overlooked one. The first thing being good at thinking demands is humility.

    • @rahulsuri8961
      @rahulsuri8961 Před 10 měsíci +13

      Its actually very hard to do it. Admitting to yourself that you have a bias marginally changed your opinion on a lot of things. Its called bias blindspot. The only way of eliminating bias is by doing research on the proposed topic to gather information to increase your understanding and confidence of an opinion on it.

    • @rahulsuri8961
      @rahulsuri8961 Před 10 měsíci +5

      Its called introspection illusion sorry*

    • @susieusmaximus5330
      @susieusmaximus5330 Před 10 měsíci +3

      @@rahulsuri8961 I'm confused, you seem to think you're disagreeing with me, but nothing that you wrote precludes anything that I wrote.

    • @tSp289
      @tSp289 Před 9 měsíci +15

      @@susieusmaximus5330 It doesn't look like he's trying to disagree with you, it looks like he's musing on your point. I know the done thing on online comment threads is to pick opposing views and fight it out, but I don't think that's what's happening here.

    • @emerginggorilla
      @emerginggorilla Před 9 měsíci +8

      This is why whenever im talking to someone about stuff politically its very worrying when they say "oh im completely unbiased" because whats most likely happening is they are pretending they dont have biases and arent taking any measures against the biases they and every other person has.

  • @aartadventure
    @aartadventure Před 2 lety +5173

    For many years I've tried to let my Science students know it is actually fantastic when they get things wrong. You learn the most that way. Unfortunately, the grading systems, parent expectations, and college requirements do not celebrate students getting things wrong. We unfortunately end up with a modern educational system that often discourages some of the best aspects of scientific thinking.

    • @bjolly8924
      @bjolly8924 Před 2 lety +100

      I learned what you are trying to communicate from a youth leader who was, and still is a scientist at ORNL.
      To fail is not a terrible thing, it is one step closer to success.....etc and so on and so forth.!!
      "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...."

    • @stevepseudonym445
      @stevepseudonym445 Před 2 lety +241

      My experience has been that tests offer insight on what you're still getting wrong, and that grades reflect how much you're getting right. The main deficiency I see is that the system is somewhat geared towards knowing stuff instead of being good at thinking. One of the reasons I've always appreciated science and math is that good thinking skills can let you figure out stuff you don't know by extrapolating from what you do know.

    • @bjolly8924
      @bjolly8924 Před 2 lety +21

      @@stevepseudonym445 Very astute observation. 👍

    • @theblackrose1510
      @theblackrose1510 Před 2 lety +126

      Tell that to scientific journals that won't publish null results. We're all sat on gold mines of information we gain from "failed" experiments with no means or motivation to share it.

    • @tatfly5779
      @tatfly5779 Před 2 lety +23

      Yeah nowadays ppl just give up or don't try at all for fear of failing.Heck Im guilty of that at times as well though it might be more that my profession is very strict in safety regulations.

  • @canadianbootz
    @canadianbootz Před 2 lety +5484

    The Cognitive Bias is such that humans generally want to confirm truth with similar data (pattern matching), not get closer to truth by proving false data (edge case detection). Both have value, but the latter is critical.

    • @choke-
      @choke- Před 2 lety +42

      thats just how i was taught math man

    • @drewlovelyhell4892
      @drewlovelyhell4892 Před 2 lety +8

      Smart cookie.

    • @Yamaazaka
      @Yamaazaka Před 2 lety +11

      No idea what this means

    • @XOSKELENTON
      @XOSKELENTON Před 2 lety +84

      @@Yamaazaka pattern matching is basically confirming what you believe with information that agrees with it instead of looking for all angles edge case is pretty much trial and error using what doesn’t work to get closer to what does but to do that you have to be able to reflect which allot of people can’t do nowadays

    • @williamwall3403
      @williamwall3403 Před 2 lety +9

      The biggest reason for that is you have to suspect that there is a deeper pattern than
      surface level. Without having someone or something to challenge or confirm the correct pattern, it's easy to simply confirm the bias.

  • @AnkhAnanku
    @AnkhAnanku Před rokem +698

    My first thought was to continue the sequence like they did. My fist challenge was to try multiply 3 instead: 3 9 27. Next try just any whole numbers: 1 3 6. Then I would have tried negatives and fractions.
    So yeah I started out confirming a bias, but you should realize pretty quick that you don’t get any closer to the actual answer unless you find what it isn’t

    • @TPRM1
      @TPRM1 Před rokem +13

      Hence:
      “The exception that proves the rule.”

    • @PhaythGaming
      @PhaythGaming Před rokem +19

      Always best to go with what’s most obvious. Try the simple thing. Multiply by two. Not right? Instantly think what else that sequence can be. Multiples of two, ascending order, non repeating.
      Ask in order of likelihood in your opinion.
      For me, I would have said 3, 6, 9
      Then 9, 6, 3
      That happens to be where you get it.
      Don’t group them into a sequence like 3, 3, 2. Then if he says no you’re in a guessing game.
      Now apply this to everything in life and you’re bing chillin

    • @farrel_ra
      @farrel_ra Před rokem +3

      ​@@PhaythGaming not jong xina?

    • @Sotanaht01
      @Sotanaht01 Před rokem +10

      @@PhaythGaming My process would have been
      16 32 64: follows yes, doubling? no
      2 4 7 follows yes (eliminate only even numbers), any whole numbers? no.
      111 follows no (attempting to eliminate "non repeating" as a rule).
      -1 -2 -3 follows no
      At this point I've probably confused myself out of solving it, because now I have several things that are not correct but that I can't directly eliminate. It could have to do with non-repeating (has to be ascending, so that's half right), it could have to be positive (problem is the increasing negative is reducing). Now I have to come up with tests to either eliminate these variables or incorporate them, and I haven't yet touched on the more simple "increasing" pattern.
      The moral of this post is that negative results are not necessarily a good thing as they can easily mislead, while positive results can give us clear answers. I can clearly judge that doubling and evens are not part of the pattern, but my negative results only tell me that repeats and negatives might not be part of the pattern, and I need multiple further tests to figure out anything useful.

    • @adamrobinson6951
      @adamrobinson6951 Před 10 měsíci +3

      I think it's reasonable to test both positives and negatives. After all, determining whether 16, 8, 4 follows the rule isn't inherently more informative than determining whether 16, 32, 64 does. If 16, 32, 64 didn't follow the rule, that immediately changes your approach as it disproves the initial assumption.
      It's only once you've established some pattern on which to base a hypothesis that you can try to disprove that hypothesis. Continuing to choose tests that fit the established pattern is the problematic step, not establishing some pattern to begin with.

  • @woy8
    @woy8 Před 9 měsíci +210

    Ask this to programmers. First thing I though was do the weirdest thing, like 1, 5900, -800. It’s like debugging, I honestly think programming teaches you how to think logically

    • @TheDarkXanatos
      @TheDarkXanatos Před 9 měsíci +19

      yeah man my first thought halfway through the video was descending cus no one was asking that and by the end i got it, it was indeed descending lol
      i wouldve tried fractions and stuff too , programming FTW!

    • @MattBulow
      @MattBulow Před 9 měsíci +12

      My first thought was of non integers

    • @junova7503
      @junova7503 Před 9 měsíci +3

      Looking at the other programmers in chat and my own correct assumption pretty quick into the video I think we effectively got the answer to how that would have gone lol. Gotta break your code to figure out if there's anything wrong.

    • @handuo6301
      @handuo6301 Před 9 měsíci +7

      as a mathematician, my first thought after “not multiplied by 2” was “increasing powers of the first number”, and then after seeing the absolute random numbers get through I would have tried imaginary and irrational numbers to see what happened. Didn’t think of descending order tho, lmao

    • @gl8862
      @gl8862 Před 9 měsíci +1

      How is this logical whatsoever? The most logical thing would be to find the most reasonable solution ie multiplying by 2. Your sequence is completely illogical if it was the first thing thought of. Your skepticism that you might already naturally have more of, was reinforced even further from the title of the video, so of course you would do the weirdest thing. Rather than thinking logically, it's closer to problem solving ability and critical thinking skills.

  • @SplendidFellow
    @SplendidFellow Před 3 lety +2298

    "If you think something is true, you should try as hard as you can to disprove it. Only then can you really get at the truth and not fool yourself." That's a hell of a good quote, dude.
    Edit: Yes, it's the scientific method, I'm aware, you can stop commenting that now.

    • @RdTrpBrgr
      @RdTrpBrgr Před 3 lety +68

      that mentality doesn't follow my rule though.

    • @TakahiroShinsaku
      @TakahiroShinsaku Před 3 lety +24

      So i think that its True that I exist
      "If you think something is true, you should try as hard as you can to disprove it. Only then can you really get at the truth and not fool yourself."
      A Few Months later...
      *HeLlo thEre ExisTanciAl Crisis!!!*

    • @hareecionelson5875
      @hareecionelson5875 Před 3 lety +13

      Flat earthers tried this, and they got the wrong answer

    • @HardnerPL
      @HardnerPL Před 3 lety +6

      @85 85 You mean like vaccines cause autism, earth is flat, the government is turning the frogs gay and so on?

    • @HardnerPL
      @HardnerPL Před 3 lety +1

      @85 85 No u
      I mean if you believe the things that I pointed out
      Like any of them

  • @grgfrg7
    @grgfrg7 Před 2 lety +4112

    Biggest hint is how quickly he was able to determine whether the proposed sequence fit, means it is probably a very simply rule

    • @AW-xc1xc
      @AW-xc1xc Před 2 lety +78

      Yeah, that was what gave it away for me

    • @goncalomorais4930
      @goncalomorais4930 Před 2 lety +40

      I think that this experience varies a lot depending on people's math knowledge, e.g. I thought multiply by 2, first two numbers must add to a number equal or bigger than the third and then the right answer whilst people who don't use math as often would probably just keep the 2x logic throughout the whole interview. This just shows how different people have different perspectives and different understandings of what's put in from of them

    • @Cowtymsmiesznego
      @Cowtymsmiesznego Před 2 lety +58

      @@goncalomorais4930 My first guess was "consecutive whole powers of a whole number" xd Kinda funny because my first suggestion would've hence been (1, 1, 1) and he would've said "no"

    • @wlgyl493
      @wlgyl493 Před 2 lety +1

      @UCleXwpsuAo8dDTwxcrc294g your profile pic got me you asshole😂

    • @douglascatling3692
      @douglascatling3692 Před 2 lety +11

      Yeah, my first thought was 'all integers' just because it would be super easy for him to confirm.

  • @adamt4776
    @adamt4776 Před rokem +194

    This also shows we go into a problem with a far too complicated solution pattern in life, sometimes the answer just needs a more simple way of thinking. Which is why getting kids involved can really open the eyes of a stuck in its ways adult.

    • @HerrNilsson.
      @HerrNilsson. Před rokem +3

      Occams razor

    • @far2ez
      @far2ez Před 7 měsíci

      Getting kids involved wouldn't help. Get these people someone who knows how to troubleshoot.

  • @Gali80f
    @Gali80f Před 10 měsíci +48

    Seen this 9 years ago. Thought to myself "yeah, ok".
    But only now I understand how profound this idea is. And I did read the Black Swan. It's just so comfortable and pleasant to search for signs that you are right and push aside the "turkey dillema"

    • @JoeHarkinsHimself
      @JoeHarkinsHimself Před 9 měsíci

      The Black Swan is fine for examining what happened . . . but it often can be do late to do anything but react . . . wouldn't be better to anticipate the problem . . . and prevent it or have correction in place before it happens . . . consider "The Gray Rhino" by Michele Wucker, the brilliant business analyst and author.

  • @xZeroGrxvity
    @xZeroGrxvity Před 7 lety +4231

    I would have tried negative numbers to be honest

  • @ikillyou121
    @ikillyou121 Před 8 lety +3707

    Anyone else get kinda annoyed that even though he said doubling the numbers wasn't the rule, they still kept trying to double their numbers?

    • @natnew32
      @natnew32 Před 8 lety +245

      They tried to find an example where doubling would not work.

    • @hjlee6192
      @hjlee6192 Před 8 lety +37

      +Josh Henton yea in a way but if u actually watched it till the end and heard what he had to say about this experiment. it may enlighten you on why they were doing that.... lol

    • @davidbrindley2729
      @davidbrindley2729 Před 8 lety +7

      +hjaylee still annoyed

    • @clixx13
      @clixx13 Před 8 lety +26

      +Josh Henton That was kinda the point of the video, as he explains near the end.

    • @michieldekoker2329
      @michieldekoker2329 Před 8 lety +13

      +Josh Henton jep, I also got annoyed they kept using increasing numbers :(

  • @user-ok7sn4rl2c
    @user-ok7sn4rl2c Před 5 měsíci +6

    9 years later and this is still such a relevant and great video. Timeless. Thank you.

  • @seekthuth2817
    @seekthuth2817 Před 3 měsíci +2

    This legitimately is one of the best videos I think I've seen on CZcams because it's rooted in very sound advice that has applications in almost everything you do. Doesn't just have to be for science and math related topics.

  • @keyman3131
    @keyman3131 Před 2 lety +1970

    That's why I love puzzles like sudoku lmao. Every "no" is part of the answer leading to "yes". Getting things wrong is literally getting things right and it feels so good to finally eliminate enough options to piece it all together

    • @bebos3001
      @bebos3001 Před 2 lety +34

      Yep, one of better tricks of sudoku

    • @cailin5301
      @cailin5301 Před rokem +16

      Every time I discuss Wordle's hard mode with someone, I think of this video

    • @schumael
      @schumael Před rokem +3

      @@cailin5301 lol

    • @ssp4795
      @ssp4795 Před rokem +1

      yes, this is how I play Wordle too. I'm quite happy to get five letters eliminated in the first guess.

    • @ezra9401
      @ezra9401 Před rokem +8

      Hard to impossible sudoku makes me act up because (this might be the wrong strategy) I can't backtrack the steps I made.

  • @aeroboi2862
    @aeroboi2862 Před 5 lety +3531

    legend says that he is still saying "Follows my rule".

    • @darshan5044
      @darshan5044 Před 3 lety

      Wow

    • @TheSecondVersion
      @TheSecondVersion Před 3 lety +6

      T'Challa: What do "2,4,8" and Wakanda have in common?
      They *follow my rule*

    • @pratikjadhav5003
      @pratikjadhav5003 Před 3 lety

      @@belgianwaffles3877 humm who cares?

    • @Sirenhound
      @Sirenhound Před 2 lety +1

      Every passing second has a number that is larger than the last.

    • @suntzu1409
      @suntzu1409 Před 2 lety +1

      Follows my rule

  • @clarabean2150
    @clarabean2150 Před rokem +63

    The whole time, even before you pushed them to the right answer, I was yelling at them through the screen. Ever since I was a kid, I always worked better trying specifically to find where rules break and learn from there.
    It's also why I hate interview quizzes of "random" people. Whats shown is generally not really random, and ends up cherry picking what is being shown, allowing users online to see the limited data and assume that everyone simply will always respond a specific way, when I know loads of people that would approach the whole problem differently, than the few people shown in the video.

    • @sillyking1991
      @sillyking1991 Před rokem +15

      to be fair, for this specific video i don't think he was trying to imply that a large chunk of the population would struggle with that 'challenge'. i think he was more using it as an illustration, because a large chunk of the public *do* fall for confirmation bias in more complext scenarios. he was just using the math challenge so its easier to see where they're going wrong. So it makes sense that he'd cherry pick the people that just happened to get stuck in the wrong cycle of thinking.

    • @uggupuggu
      @uggupuggu Před rokem +1

      Aight Mr. Bean

    • @Jan-wz5yu
      @Jan-wz5yu Před rokem +1

      🤓

    • @uggupuggu
      @uggupuggu Před rokem +1

      🤓

  • @Creper_
    @Creper_ Před 9 měsíci +20

    I took an experimental psychology class last year, and the entire class played this game at the beginning of every class. By the end of the year, we were solving the puzzle in 5 minutes. The other part of it was that the professor would never tell us if we were right, only letting us be satisfied with our answer.

    • @bruhmoment1835
      @bruhmoment1835 Před 8 měsíci

      That's sounds like a lazy ass professor lmao

  • @realamztvs
    @realamztvs Před 3 lety +3453

    Actual Mathmatician: "i, -i, i^2"
    Veritasium: "give me a minute"

    • @ISPY4ever
      @ISPY4ever Před 3 lety +131

      ḭ̞̠̙̺̐̒͐͐͘͢͠ ǐ̵̡̫̟̜̠̜̅̓́̂ŝ̸̴̳̥̬̲ͪ͂́̐͢ a̴̧̢̲̘̱̲̐͐ͭ͗͠ ņ̢̼̤̫̬̎̔̎ͣ͂͛ų̻̺̳͈̘̝ͤͦ̽ͣ̆m̨̫̤̠̙̰̠ͮ̇ͧͨ̚b̵̴̵̷̖͚̞̞̉͂̾̉ḛ̱̳͇͙̹̃̒ͦ̽͝͝r̢̭̜̻̩̬͗̌ͮͦ̐͆.̴̡̧̤̖͚͈̙̆ͫ̾̂

    • @vinaylalwani
      @vinaylalwani Před 3 lety +373

      @@ISPY4ever it's imaginary, but yes it is a number

    • @rr24creations
      @rr24creations Před 3 lety +135

      What if Derek was prepared and he said his rule was for ascending real numbers, or even integers to be more specific

    • @huongvu-yz2nn
      @huongvu-yz2nn Před 3 lety +158

      Actually, i=i^1; (-1)=i^2; (-i)=i^3 (because i^3=(i^2)*(i^1)= (-1)*i=i^3)
      Bonus: i^4=1 (because i^4=(i^2)^2=(-1)^2=1)

    • @vinaylalwani
      @vinaylalwani Před 3 lety +56

      @@huongvu-yz2nn who asked?

  • @noodlesthe1st
    @noodlesthe1st Před 2 lety +4083

    Why do I feel like everyone who is an advocate of "do your own research" needs to see this. If you tell someone to do their own research they will always find a heap of evidence to support their own hypothesis and never anything to go against it.

    • @ineedabetterpfp2485
      @ineedabetterpfp2485 Před 2 lety +130

      I agree. Really, it’s true. You should do your own research.

    • @kylemilford8758
      @kylemilford8758 Před 2 lety +112

      That's just how we are wired. If I think blue is the best color I will search evidence on why it is the best. I would never string my query to say "why is green better than blue" if my end goal is to prove why blue is better

    • @omp199
      @omp199 Před 2 lety +50

      @@ineedabetterpfp2485 Perhaps you are making a joke, but if not, you've misunderstood the original comment. You say that you agree, but what they were saying was that you _shouldn't_ tell someone to do their own research. If they already have a belief that you think is wrong, you need to present them with the evidence that it is wrong. They are very unlikely to go away and find that evidence for themselves.

    • @omp199
      @omp199 Před 2 lety +18

      @@kylemilford8758 The question of the "best colour" is not a factual question, though. It is purely a matter of individual taste. If you like blue best, then blue is the best colour, for you. It is not something that you can find evidence on, other than the evidence that comes from within.
      Of course, it is conceivable that you just haven't experienced enough colours, and that there might be a colour out there that you would prefer, if only you could see it, and it would take research to find that colour. But the research would just be to find the colour in the first place, and to judge your own emotional response to it, not to find a analysis of its quality that someone else has written.

    • @ineedabetterpfp2485
      @ineedabetterpfp2485 Před 2 lety +47

      @@omp199 Yeah I was making a joke

  • @Kway32
    @Kway32 Před 11 měsíci +20

    Thank you for sharing! This reminds me of an old road-trip game called green glass door or a similar one about going on a picnic. One person thinks of some criteria determining what can be brought through the green glass door (or brought on their picnic), for example anything that has the letter "a". The other players propose objects, and the player with the rule tells them whether or not that object fits the criteria.

    • @siva2610
      @siva2610 Před 2 měsíci

      Could you tell me more about the rules and perhaps give an example? Sorry if I'm asking too much, but hey, YT comments....

  • @melissabright22
    @melissabright22 Před 7 měsíci +13

    When I first saw that any sequence they proposed was said to match his rule, I looked at what they all had in common. They were all using NATURAL NUMBERS, and they were all increasing as they went, so I started listing random numbers like "3.8", "-14", "22½", "pi", etc.

  • @supremeassassin3478
    @supremeassassin3478 Před 4 lety +3431

    My rule : multiples of 1

  • @bobert286
    @bobert286 Před rokem +4425

    New perspective:
    This is how us programmers work. We will tire endlessly to fix an error and then get excited when we get a NEW error because then we know we actually are making progress
    Breaking code is ALWAYS more informative than just assuming our current code is flawless...so often times we write tests INTENDING to make the code fail, or if we want to make sure things work we will actually MAKE the code break to make sure it actually fails as we expect it to fail.
    Pretty much our entire careers are built around making sure our code does not subvert our expectations by breaking it to make sure it will NOT do just that haha

    • @LtPowers
      @LtPowers Před rokem +169

      Can confirm. As a programmer, I wanted to throttle all these guessers early on, and I figured out his rule fairly quickly even with their lame-ass guessing.

    • @tokeivo
      @tokeivo Před rokem +86

      @@LtPowers same - "figured out" my be a bit overstating it, but it was my next guess once they tried their first non-doubling sequence.
      But yeah, as a programmer it's more of a habit than a lack of bias. "Oh, the code works now, so I might be done with this assignment... can I find a case where it doesn't work, though?"

    • @raldrid8264
      @raldrid8264 Před rokem +52

      @@tokeivo Oh it requires me to input a number. Ok so now let me input a letter, what about a different language, what about a number outside the range, what about nothing being input. And only through all those tests do we know that you can truthfully only enter a number.

    • @sheshasaibabagujjari3481
      @sheshasaibabagujjari3481 Před rokem +37

      And honestly when I get an error, I kind of feel better. Because fixing the problem is easier than not knowing the problem.

    • @swaghettimemeballs4420
      @swaghettimemeballs4420 Před rokem +16

      So basically the greatest strength of a programmer is mental gymnastics. Got it.

  • @cmcull987
    @cmcull987 Před rokem +1

    Thank you for sharing. I think a lot of the participants were looking for patterns that were more complicated than the pattern he had. Thank you for sharing this.

  • @franciscooctavius5957
    @franciscooctavius5957 Před 9 měsíci +2

    What a strong yet simple way to showcase our learned conditioning of thought. The human mind is so fascinating and more so what’s fascinating is how so m any of us instinctively think of the same “rule” without allowing ourselves to think of other “rules” or “outcomes” exist. Love this.

  • @threedot141
    @threedot141 Před rokem +3030

    I don't think most people consider teaching as a form of art, but I find that the entertainment, engagement, clarity and impact of this video is truly beautiful.

    • @ItzJNazz
      @ItzJNazz Před rokem +31

      Teaching has afaik always been a form of art, however it has lost the art-aspect of it through the years hence why gaining knowledge might seem boring. Our desire to learn has been forced into a set path (aka school), which works for the majority. Sadly, it is a shallow way of teaching.

    • @TheWchurchill4pm
      @TheWchurchill4pm Před rokem +8

      This is the best way of teaching: ask questions and assign work that makes the student think long and hard about something.

    • @ItzJNazz
      @ItzJNazz Před rokem +12

      @@TheWchurchill4pm It is a good way to teach indeed, but I wouldn't say there is such a thing as a "best" method for teaching. Mostly due to everyone being different, with their own methods for learning.

    • @ethancampbell245
      @ethancampbell245 Před rokem +14

      As a young autistic adult I believe that there is a best method for teaching and that it ironically lies in exactly what you’ve already described. It lies in the idea that there is no one way to teach for everyone. Consider the notion that students pick favorite teachers all the time. Following the reasoning that the teacher that connects with the most students and teaches the most students the most is the best teacher, wouldn’t it make sense that the best teaching style is to understand that there is no one teaching style?

    • @thedislikebutton1907
      @thedislikebutton1907 Před rokem

      Infotainment...

  • @cyin974
    @cyin974 Před 4 lety +1649

    me: "can I go out and play?"
    mom: "no, that doesn't follow my rule."
    Veritasium: "TRY AS HARD AS YOU CAN TO DISPROVE IT!"

  • @AlexanderNash
    @AlexanderNash Před rokem +205

    I think part of the bias is that almost every "number sequence following a rule" problem, I've ever seen, uses ascending numbers by default AND these problems almost always involve some sort of operation on one member of the set to get to the next one. I think the bias comes from how people have seen these questions before not some inherent bias.

    • @farrel_ra
      @farrel_ra Před rokem +4

      Agree!

    • @lvlupproductions2480
      @lvlupproductions2480 Před rokem +15

      If you're (2nd person subjective definition not accusatory) entrenched in thinking that way it's even more important to break your preconceived notions.
      Before edit:
      If you're (2nd person dative definition not accusatory) entrenched in thinking that way it's even more important to break your preconceived notions.

    • @nineteenfortyeight6762
      @nineteenfortyeight6762 Před rokem +2

      @@lvlupproductions2480 2nd person possessive

    • @lvlupproductions2480
      @lvlupproductions2480 Před rokem +1

      @@nineteenfortyeight6762 Why would that be possessive?

    • @bradleyboyer9979
      @bradleyboyer9979 Před rokem +6

      Agree. This literally proved no bias at all. The people assume that a guy with a camera is asking them questions about a sequence of numbers that requires deep thought. He could have used any "rule" he wanted and gotten the same result. Positive numbers. Numbers divisible by one. Etc.
      This was not at all informative or interesting.

  • @ammonite400
    @ammonite400 Před rokem

    This is an incredible video! Made me think differently. It’s been sitting in my watch later list for so long, now I’m sad I didn’t watch it sooner!

  • @nlaughton
    @nlaughton Před 2 lety +991

    As a teacher I love this, and will probably be asking my students this question today. I'm at least glad that my line of thinking went pretty immediately from 3-6-12 to 1-2-3 to 3-2-1. Getting comfortable with being wrong is the only way to be consistently right. In physics I even always make sure to point out that basically everything I'm about to teach you is wrong in some way, but it's about figuring out how wrong you are and whether that matters in the given application.

    • @jam9297
      @jam9297 Před 2 lety +43

      Way to pat yourself on the back, remember humility

    • @baseballwizardbaseballwiza6204
      @baseballwizardbaseballwiza6204 Před 2 lety +13

      @@jam9297 lmaooo

    • @Gullshunter
      @Gullshunter Před 2 lety +2

      Any update how it went? What is the age of your students?

    • @monkeybomb1232
      @monkeybomb1232 Před 2 lety +20

      You arent special lol. He deliberatley cuts out all the poeple that naturaly come to pick numbers like that. This goes for all his videos like this. The point is to show the most extreme version of the bias to demonstrate it effectivley. You cant apply this as a rule so heavily to the general population especialy across time people will and wont suffer the bias on and off. That said generaly you would expect every single person to suffer this particular bias fairly often due to the large number of situations it applies to.

    • @tpstrat14
      @tpstrat14 Před 2 lety +2

      Oh a math teacher! Cool! So I have a question. What other rule besides doubling would satisfy both the sequence [2, 4, 8...] as well as infinite other sequences? How about we let k be arbitrarily positive. Then let's raise k to the nth power, start n at one and increase n by 1 for each successive term. This would give us [3, 9, 27...] for k = 3 and [4, 16, 64...] for k =4 and [5, 25, 125] for k =5, etc. Would that work, do you think?

  • @nickllama5296
    @nickllama5296 Před 2 lety +444

    I was actually expecting the rule (initially) to be "give me 3 random numbers."

    • @jayceewedmak9524
      @jayceewedmak9524 Před 2 lety +19

      After a couple of times of people's examples and Derek saying "correct but not my rule " I thought 3 numbers just like you. I thought of 3 and they were ascending but it wasn't a conscious choice to make them ascending - more just following his pattern.

    • @shawnclark732
      @shawnclark732 Před 2 lety +4

      Me too

    • @goldenraisins
      @goldenraisins Před 2 lety +3

      @@jayceewedmak9524 I suppose recognizing you're following his pattern is catching the rule!

    • @cengizkaan7513
      @cengizkaan7513 Před 2 lety +1

      Well it might be your own rule if you want to test people like this guy did.

    • @yusurkassem4174
      @yusurkassem4174 Před 2 lety

      Well what's not a 'random' number
      I thought that's what it might be at first but like that's stupid because that just means there is no rule

  • @jonh284
    @jonh284 Před 9 měsíci +1

    I deal with this at work on a daily basis in training people to become more effective problem solvers and troubleshooters in a technical setting. In atrociously abridged form:
    1. Identify what makes sense.
    2. Identify possible contradictions.
    3. Use list #2 to either add to list #1 or find the solution.
    In the case of the video example: doubles, squares, and evens should be the things NOT to use to identify the “problem” (rule) at first. Eliminating the most obvious contradictions to the given set (odds, negatives, non-integers) will give you the most information moving forward.

  • @starque_forever
    @starque_forever Před 6 měsíci +1

    I really love this video, it's kinda eye-opening to how we come up with a rule and live our lives according to that rule without even questioning whether it's true or not.

  • @evesolis6133
    @evesolis6133 Před 2 lety +3240

    This is why smart people sometimes argue for bad arguments and ideas just to explore the possibilities

    • @aqfanjames
      @aqfanjames Před 2 lety +238

      nah, people who like to play devil's advocate are sometimes just dicks

    • @jiyama
      @jiyama Před 2 lety +53

      mostly for the lulz

    • @EaZyGoiN12
      @EaZyGoiN12 Před 2 lety +143

      I think what you mean is that, sometimes curious ("smart") people, seek out other opinions or perspectives about something that is widely believed in. Because in an instance that someone might have a whole different view on something must mean, more than that more than one person has concluded to believe that as well. Also because in many situations there is always opposing sides, and so there might be actual realities with "holes" or faults on their beliefs.

    • @thekeyandthegate4093
      @thekeyandthegate4093 Před 2 lety +129

      @@aqfanjames
      Playing Devil's Advocate doesn't make you a dick. It's important to entertain possibilities outside of the established facts because it's impossible in many cases to account for everyone's bias or every single variable.

    • @joanagomes1898
      @joanagomes1898 Před 2 lety +81

      @@thekeyandthegate4093 Yes, entertaining other possibilities is important, and there is nothing wrong with playing devil's advocate. I think Aqfan James is reacting like this because some people will express opinions they clearly believe in, and then claim to be playing devils advocate just to escape backlash.

  • @citizen_koehn
    @citizen_koehn Před 2 lety +861

    The golden nugget: "If you think that something is true, you should try as hard as you can to disprove it."

    • @TheBaggyT
      @TheBaggyT Před 2 lety +39

      Within reason... I think that falling off a 300ft cliff with no safety would end in serious injury or death. I'm not in a hurry to disprove that one!
      But also its inverse:
      "If you think something is untrue, you should try as hard as you can to prove it."
      That one is often lacking in the scientific community.

    • @rio1408
      @rio1408 Před 2 lety

      Yep

    • @oliverhou5354
      @oliverhou5354 Před 2 lety +19

      @@TheBaggyT Your claim is actually not true. To prove a point, you need it to be right in every circumstance it claimed to fit, but to disprove it, you only need one. So if one rule is proved to be not true, it doesn't matter if in some particular cases it succeeds.

    • @TheBaggyT
      @TheBaggyT Před 2 lety +8

      @@oliverhou5354 That's a fairly simple way of looking at things... most things and systems are fairly complex. Just because one aspect may not fit a particular theory, can you write off all aspects? No, there is more to investigate.

    • @God1is1love1
      @God1is1love1 Před 2 lety +12

      People need to do this with their worldview. I love doing this. I am a Christian and I love hearing the Athiestic perspectives or other religions. This is the major reason I love debating (in a calm, organized manner) because either me or the other person will either walk away with more faith in our stance (in whatever) or we are closer to the truth.

  • @wordkyle
    @wordkyle Před 4 měsíci +7

    I just rewatched this video after originally watching it eight years ago. The point -- that scientists should seek to disprove their results rather than just confirm their ideas -- seems much more relevant after what's happened in recent years.

  • @garyz777
    @garyz777 Před rokem +41

    I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. It's the way I try to live. I believe that there is more in heaven and earth than exists in our philosophies and, therefore, I try to always see what the "other side" or sides are saying about the same issue. This started when I was a teen and was watching a courtroom drama. I remember that after the prosecution presented its case, I thought, "hey, that was so clear and valid; I don't need to hear what the other side has to say, it would just waste my time.". Then the defense spoke. My jaw dropped. I found out that I was wrong. It was a great lesson to learn.

    • @theblasteffect4499
      @theblasteffect4499 Před rokem +1

      Yeah this goes for anything with apposing sides. Or just any circumstances that have any level of problem solving to figure out the truth.

    • @CC-2020
      @CC-2020 Před 9 měsíci

      What courtroom drama was it

    • @garyz777
      @garyz777 Před 9 měsíci

      I really don't recall. I'm in my 50s now.

  • @Khaztr
    @Khaztr Před 2 lety +701

    "If you think that something is true, you should try as hard as you can to disprove it. Only then can you really get at the truth and not fool yourself."
    Definitely one of my favorite quotes now. I just wish I had heard anything like it earlier when studying the scientific method in school.

    • @jacobbernstein7249
      @jacobbernstein7249 Před rokem +5

      This dudes videos are fantastic.

    • @dominicstocker5144
      @dominicstocker5144 Před rokem +1

      @@jacobbernstein7249 he’s biased hard on his sponsored videos tho

    • @khabanh6928
      @khabanh6928 Před rokem +1

      One of the proving method I learnt at school is to find 1 AND ONLY 1 example that contradicts the theory. I was like: damnn its so easy to disprove something. But yet, aft this video i realized its not that easy

    • @austinhernandez2716
      @austinhernandez2716 Před rokem +2

      Do you do that for your religion?

    • @marilyngoldie5946
      @marilyngoldie5946 Před rokem

      @@dominicstocker5144 What do you mean?

  • @larrystone654
    @larrystone654 Před 2 lety +949

    Rule: at about 3 and a half minutes folks start looking for an escape route.

    • @cannabinized
      @cannabinized Před 2 lety +48

      Especially when it's becoming evident their partner is smarter

    • @JakeWitmer
      @JakeWitmer Před 2 lety +9

      @@cannabinized LOL "upsetting the natural order"

    • @Zeuts85
      @Zeuts85 Před 2 lety +19

      Yeah, it actually annoys the hell out of me how easily people give up or shy away from any sort of mental challenge. It's a wonder homo sapiens ever made it this far.

    • @TheSlimmshadyy
      @TheSlimmshadyy Před 2 lety +11

      @@Zeuts85 Hmm or they could just be doing something better ?

    • @definitelynotcrazyrei3890
      @definitelynotcrazyrei3890 Před 2 lety +7

      At that timestamp he's talking about swans.

  • @misterdoctor9693
    @misterdoctor9693 Před rokem +11

    This reminds me of Wordle. You can nearly always figure out the answer whether your initial guesses were hits or misses because they both give you more information.

  • @Lothrean
    @Lothrean Před 8 měsíci

    Please make this video again!
    Make it in a way that shows how conspiracy theories work in the brain.
    This is so important in this time!

  • @denissanterre3092
    @denissanterre3092 Před 2 lety +1963

    This lesson should be mandatory for all grade school children.

    • @west5385
      @west5385 Před 2 lety +109

      Nah, school teaches everyone that being wrong and failing at things only amounts to embarrassment,disappointment and feeling like a failure.

    • @skenda
      @skenda Před 2 lety +4

      You must be old

    • @denissanterre3092
      @denissanterre3092 Před 2 lety +1

      @@skenda Yes

    • @denissanterre3092
      @denissanterre3092 Před 2 lety +6

      @Inescapable Justice I give up, what is the answer to this "Begging the question" fallacy? There is only one thing that I know absolutely, I have a conscious. Nothing else that I believe or have read or have seen or sensed is absolutely true. No, I am not lying to myself. I believe.

    • @michaelthornes
      @michaelthornes Před 2 lety +12

      @Inescapable Justice I have no idea what you're going on about with the two false statements-you should probably be more clear as to the point you're trying to make

  • @maxvirtus2614
    @maxvirtus2614 Před 5 lety +7264

    1, 69, 420

  • @adityachakrabarti950
    @adityachakrabarti950 Před 8 měsíci +1

    dude this is legit one of the best videos on the internet...........*period*

  • @theguardian308
    @theguardian308 Před 10 měsíci +1

    Thank you so much for this video. I’ve actually used it while facilitating a workshop and the same thing happened. Love it

  • @Vermilicious
    @Vermilicious Před 2 lety +1046

    I think there's another thing going on here. People, when asked a question regarding numbers/math, assume the answer is non-trivial, and so they don't think about the trivial possibilities. A child would likely get the correct answer much sooner.

    • @joshuasukup2488
      @joshuasukup2488 Před 2 lety +26

      Very true! Everyone (including) looked for a more restricted time rule.

    • @lucasyates1893
      @lucasyates1893 Před 2 lety +50

      The answer isn't trivial, it's just less rigid, specific, and complex than at first appears, which actually is a good analogy for other types of information and patterns in the world. And the real key is the process to which we discover truth. Do we ever test hypotheses that we're confident will give us disconfirming results, or do we never test hypotheses that we're confident will give us disconfirming results? Asking only questions that will confirm our hypothesis is what we call confirmation bias.

    • @reportsreports7149
      @reportsreports7149 Před 2 lety +18

      Incorrect. It is MOST trivial to answer with "16" when presented with a sequence of "2, 4, 8". Those are powers of two. This is actually the most common and trivial answer you'd get, even from a child that has a bit of brain and can multiply by 2.
      Answering with "just a random numbers in ascending order" is actually very non-trivial, because the sequence you were presented with (2, 4, 8) clearly follows a rule - multiplication by 2. This rule is easily spotted by any sane person who knows kindergaten-level mathematics. That is why trying to break the rule and saying "numbers in ascending order" is very counterintuitive and non-trivial.

    • @Vermilicious
      @Vermilicious Před 2 lety +24

      @@reportsreports7149 There are degrees of "trivial", and I'm pretty sure sorting numbers is more trivial than multiplication. Multiplication is certainly not kinder garden-level math. I wonder what kind of kinder garden you went to.
      I would say, most people don't want to think about math at all during their everyday life, and in this case they are asked on the street. Their first suggestion is obvious and it is the correct and sane answer. And it's just about complicated enough, in that setting, where they are not prepared. Why would anyone ask them on the street if they can sort numbers?
      Then they are given the reply that it's wrong, and they loose what little confidence they had, and so they are mostly just guessing wildly. Because, it has to be non-trivial and they already got it wrong. That means the answer has to be more complicated, not simpler. That is the expectation. That is their intuition.
      Is this an example of group think and bias? Yes and no.

    • @Vermilicious
      @Vermilicious Před 2 lety +13

      @@lucasyates1893 The answer is as trivial as sorting numbers. It doesn't get much more trivial than that. No one who is asked a math question on the street would expect to be told to sort numbers. They expect something more complicated. And this, I would emphasize, is to a greater degree true when it comes to problems of a mathematical and logical nature. So I would argue, while this example has elements of bias in it, it's not only that. The question was intentionally made to confuse people, in a topic people easily get confused with. Many would even fear it.

  • @josephroussos9926
    @josephroussos9926 Před 2 lety +777

    There's a game on steam called Understand, which is basically this exact concept. It's interesting how trying to figure out the rules behind a puzzle requires a completely different line of thinking from your typical puzzle where you just want to find the solution, and this video demonstrates that perfectly.

    • @mizlia
      @mizlia Před 2 lety +21

      Yes! I'm on chapter 3 right now, that's immediately what I thought of. You think you know what the rules are because everything you've seen confirms your theory, and then you get to a puzzle that throws your assumptions out the window. I feel like my recent experience with that game made me wise very quickly to what was going on.

    • @slushpuppie19
      @slushpuppie19 Před 2 lety +6

      Thanks for mentioning this game, it sounds very interesting, I'm checking it out now!

    • @Nazareadain
      @Nazareadain Před 2 lety +10

      which reminds me of The Witness, where trial and error is supposed to chip away at the rule, and making assumptions really bites you on the ass.

    • @josephroussos9926
      @josephroussos9926 Před 2 lety

      @@Nazareadain I also played through the Witness, it's a quality puzzle game, although I found it quite difficult

    • @UCvow2TUIH0d2Ax2vik9ILzg
      @UCvow2TUIH0d2Ax2vik9ILzg Před 2 lety +1

      Thanks for the recommendation.

  • @cosmicpuma
    @cosmicpuma Před 4 měsíci

    I always say that the best people to get advice from are the ones who can tell you how not to do something... those people who reply to a question for advice with "I might not be able to tell you the right way to do that but I can certainly tell you a thousand ways not to!"...in other words, all the proverbial 'pot holes' to avoid in life... After all, how do you know that the one way some person is telling you is right for you.... You have a better chance of success knowing all the things to avoid, especially in unknown territory. So, while this is not quite the same, it is the 'no' answer in another form. Great vid as always. Appreciated.

  • @daveauburn1561
    @daveauburn1561 Před 10 měsíci +58

    My first thought was even numbers. So naturally, I proposed 1, 3, 5. My second thought was the numbers differed by 2. So next, I proposed 1, 2, 3. At this point, increasing numbers was a fairly easy guess.

    • @kai-gg2ip
      @kai-gg2ip Před 9 měsíci

      Same I got before anyone did in the video

    • @eriklarsen6790
      @eriklarsen6790 Před 4 měsíci +2

      ​@@kai-gg2ip I did too, but it's possible that they got it pretty quickly too. We were being shown several groups after all.

    • @jemangerrit1747
      @jemangerrit1747 Před 4 měsíci +1

      Well not really, cause you havent gotten any wrong answers yet. You should still try 0,0,0 and 3,2,1. At the end of your guesses these could still be correct.
      Even when you know about the bias you still fall into it

  • @megabear163
    @megabear163 Před 7 lety +1334

    Interesting how all the numbers are greater than zero.

    • @KoenZyxYssel
      @KoenZyxYssel Před 7 lety +23

      So true, I want to know if 0, 0, 1 and/or -1,-2,-3 fit his rule.

    • @megabear163
      @megabear163 Před 7 lety +45

      KoenZyxYssel 0=0(-2)>(-3) so that would not work. The rule is x

    • @KoenZyxYssel
      @KoenZyxYssel Před 7 lety +2

      For most purposes it's good to assume 0 is 0 and -1 is greater than -2 but when you're taking measurements 0 is rarely 0 and -2 is almost always greater than -1.
      If his numbers don't have to be unique the rule could be x= |z| but I'm still not sure if that's his rule.

    • @SuperSox97
      @SuperSox97 Před 7 lety +6

      +broccoli
      But the numbers the other people proposed did not follow exponents but was approved.

    • @Keldor314
      @Keldor314 Před 7 lety +15

      I believe he chose the powers of 2 on purpose, as a red herring. It can be hard to take a step back and try to find a less specific rule rather than a more specific one.

  • @matthewward7220
    @matthewward7220 Před 2 lety +1542

    Another bias is at play for us viewers who have been primed to know “it’s a trick”. We know that the participants are meant to be getting it wrong for a demonstration, that’s why we feel super clever when we all realised it’s just an ascending order way before the people on the video.

    • @dxlaser3397
      @dxlaser3397 Před 2 lety +20

      I thought it was the previous 2 numbers multiplied by eachother at first, so I was thinking about 32
      256 8192 being the next numbers but that quickly became incorrect :(

    • @AsPEctFAm
      @AsPEctFAm Před 2 lety +17

      @@dxlaser3397 I also thought it was the previous 2 numbers multiplied by each other, but didn't get anywhere near trying to calculate 32 x 256 in my head :D

    • @dxlaser3397
      @dxlaser3397 Před 2 lety +8

      @@AsPEctFAm I just used my laptop calculator xD

    • @laurapessoa2780
      @laurapessoa2780 Před 2 lety +46

      Well thank you for saying this bc i did feel super clever 😭

    • @wellendowedplatypus9024
      @wellendowedplatypus9024 Před 2 lety +23

      Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. If it's not "multiply by two", then it must be SOMETHING else. In addition, I would expect it to be something relatively simple (i.e. something a normal person can calculate in their head) and not some esoteric math because that would just be pointless. I would have tried 3, 9, 27 first, then 2, 3, 11, then 2, 8, 4. Then I would have guessed the correct rule.
      Watching people try the exact same thing again and again and again was very frustrating. You are not getting any new information ffs, change your approach already!

  • @victorlewis3251
    @victorlewis3251 Před 4 měsíci

    That was a fun video! I'm not sure when/if I would've figured it out. I was focused on the individual "trees" (numbers you were throwing out and whether they fit an addition or multiplication pattern) and not the "forest" the numbers were in. That is: when given a subset of three things (any three things) they form a relationship(s) of some sort. Is it size? Shape? Sound? Sequence? Place? Intensity? Duration?Philosophical? You know, the old "Animal, mineral, or vegetable?" of the twenty questions game. That was fun....even though I hadn't figured it out because of my narrow focus. 🤔I immediately/unconciously saw the numbers were going in ascending order but I blew right past that to get to the "real" rule". I was being too clever by half. The more I reflect on what you were driving at, the more I savor your video.

  • @samstewart4444
    @samstewart4444 Před rokem +1

    When the question was asked, everyone got the right answer for the special case. It is true that 2, 4, 8 are ascending numbers, but it is also true that the sequence involved doubling numbers. For this reason, the question was deceptive at best. I think the video proved that how you ask a question is important. Using a special case can lead the answers in the wrong direction.

  • @b07x
    @b07x Před 3 lety +2619

    My Rule: All Numbers are Positive

    • @kingkonglong9442
      @kingkonglong9442 Před 3 lety +24

      But then where is the ordering?

    • @blaziken0974
      @blaziken0974 Před 3 lety +124

      -3, -2 , -1

    • @raynemichelle2996
      @raynemichelle2996 Před 3 lety +19

      Posi vibes only

    • @jeuno.
      @jeuno. Před 3 lety +43

      I originally thought the rule was they were all positive integers

    • @Astrobrant2
      @Astrobrant2 Před 3 lety +32

      The goal was to figure out HIS rule.
      So as Adam pointed out, -3, -2, -1 would follow the rule.

  • @alvinpalmgren3442
    @alvinpalmgren3442 Před 3 lety +296

    "Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or to refute it."
    - Karl Popper

    • @drmedwuast
      @drmedwuast Před 3 lety +1

      Makes amazing cleaning products too, big fan

  • @tcol
    @tcol Před rokem +3

    My reasoning was 2 = three letters, 4 = four letters, and then 8 = five letters. Then after the first argument, I noticed you answered too quickly to any 3-number set, so "ascending order" was the next obvious answer. But it's easy for me to say since I already knew a cognitive bias was in place, plus seeing multiple people trying it before.

  • @hetanshpatel510
    @hetanshpatel510 Před rokem +1

    This video was recommended to me nearly 15 times and I only ignored it, assuming it to be boring.
    I finally clicked it. I can't be more glad

  • @alphacore4332
    @alphacore4332 Před 8 lety +190

    PAY ATTENTION: this video is not about if you can or can not guess the rule or how fast you solved it or how amazing you are, it is here to teach about the methodology behind finding a correct answer in the scenario the people being filmed were in. They should have been giving him WRONG answers but instinctively gave him answers they thought were correct so they didn't get any closer to the rule. Since you didn't ask any questions, you didn't play the actual game... the rule could have been much more complex, and having only 'yes' as a response doesn't narrow it down.

  • @JohnHollowell
    @JohnHollowell Před 2 lety +457

    This is basically what QA and testing people for programs have to do: think of all the different ways and orders to try to trip up a program

    • @1BeGe
      @1BeGe Před 2 lety +26

      Accurate. Many people know how to write code that works. Few know how to write code that can't not work.

    • @damiankaleomontero496
      @damiankaleomontero496 Před 2 lety +13

      Ah yes bug fixing, the actual hard part of coding

    • @Zerububble
      @Zerububble Před 2 lety +4

      What would a sane person do? Don't do that.

    • @hottuna2006
      @hottuna2006 Před 2 lety +7

      @@Zerububble It's the other way around. What is something no sane person would do? Do that.

    • @BusinessWolf1
      @BusinessWolf1 Před 2 lety +3

      That's how I find bugs in video games and apps

  • @fnbcarpenter6343
    @fnbcarpenter6343 Před 4 měsíci

    My first set i tried was 1, 4, 9. I had to wait a little bit in the video to see if it followed your rule, once you said it did, i assumed it was ascending order and said 1, 9, 4, to which i was correct. Pretty happy with how quick i was on solving it.

  • @sinistertoady6712
    @sinistertoady6712 Před 4 měsíci +1

    This is still interesting. As some one did advanced maths just that last year the way, I proved conjectures was to throw everything through it, positive numbers, negative numbers and fractions. It was always the quickest way to prove it. So the way I approached this was 1, -1, and 1.5. Keeping things simple also helps, as the smaller the number the easier it was to understand.

  • @somethingsomethingsomethingdar

    I’ve been trying to disprove that I’m a virgin for the last seven years….So far the theory is rocksolid

    • @pedestrian2530
      @pedestrian2530 Před 2 lety +101

      Think of all the times there was a possibility that someone banged you in your sleep.

    • @letsgoBrandon204
      @letsgoBrandon204 Před 2 lety +48

      And now examine your house security

    • @Wertsir
      @Wertsir Před 2 lety +12

      @@pedestrian2530 I remember. Happy memories.

    • @sentfromheaven00
      @sentfromheaven00 Před 2 lety +11

      @@pedestrian2530 I would not like to think about bein raped

    • @mg6240
      @mg6240 Před 2 lety +2

      @@pedestrian2530 are you saying that was really Alexis Texas? Dam I ain't watched porn in ages I just realised shes prolly old now.
      Edit: just did a quick Google search.
      She still got it.

  • @howard5992
    @howard5992 Před 2 lety +269

    There is a also different "lesson" here.
    When you have a problem to solve don't become blind to the idea that the answer may be simpler than you first think.

    • @MisterFoxton
      @MisterFoxton Před 2 lety +17

      Occam's Razor!

    • @kevinw712
      @kevinw712 Před 2 lety +6

      Admittedly very early on my initial guess was ascending non-consecutive numbers, until he said the "11, 12, 13" was okay, that's when it was obvious. I'm like shouting at the screen "people it's ascending numbers, that's all!!" lol

    • @mrpedrobraga
      @mrpedrobraga Před 2 lety +6

      as a programmer I'm guilty of this
      spent 30 minutes coding a touchscreen detection system
      I had one done, better than my system, already layig around

    • @workmad3
      @workmad3 Před 2 lety +5

      @@kevinw712 Until you test '1,1,1' and '3,2,1', it could also just be 'any 3 positive numbers', and without '-3,-2,-1', and similar, you also have the open possibility of 'any 3 numbers'

    • @alvallac2171
      @alvallac2171 Před 2 lety +1

      *simpler

  • @koteamobfr
    @koteamobfr Před 9 měsíci +3

    I don't think the vast majority think about educating as a type of workmanship, however I observe that the diversion, commitment, lucidity and effect of this video is genuinely lovely.

  • @chrishellize
    @chrishellize Před rokem +1

    That is the best advice I've ever heard in my life. When you think something is true, try your hardest to disprove it before you accept it as 'true'. Imagine if everybody applied this rule to ideologies before they accepted them as fact.

    • @far2ez
      @far2ez Před 7 měsíci

      Your take-away was bad, but it isn't your fault. It's because the video was bad.
      The real take-away should be: when observing a trend, come up with many competing hypotheses and attempt to test them all simultaneously.

  • @porridgegod42
    @porridgegod42 Před 2 lety +526

    my physics teacher clearly watches this channel as he gave our class the exact same challenge, I think we all fell into the bias

    • @blartversenwaldiii
      @blartversenwaldiii Před rokem +8

      This puzzle has appeared lots of places, I originally found it in Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality lol. Possibly it was invented in the 'The Black Swan' book he mentioned and then people passed it around through word of mouth?
      Edit: another comment said they saw this problem in 1987. It's just an old problem.

    • @shaman_bez_bubna
      @shaman_bez_bubna Před rokem +2

      ​@@blartversenwaldiii Wikipedia says the 2-4-6 task was created by Peter Cathcart Wason in 1960.

    • @blartversenwaldiii
      @blartversenwaldiii Před rokem +1

      @@shaman_bez_bubna ahh thanks

    • @iyedtheboss7372
      @iyedtheboss7372 Před 10 měsíci

      let me guess, american?

  • @stacyswirl
    @stacyswirl Před 2 lety +456

    I figured it out after hearing "2, 4, 7" followed the rule. I couldn't offhand think of anything that would work for both "2, 4, 8" and "2, 4, 7" other than "they get bigger as they go along".

    • @amirofthedesert
      @amirofthedesert Před 2 lety +56

      I really wanted someone to say 3,2,1 after the 2,4,7 established the likely answer.

    • @niithaki3957
      @niithaki3957 Před 2 lety +3

      Same!

    • @anothony3399
      @anothony3399 Před 2 lety +22

      I thought it was "they're all whole numbers" for a while until I remembered he said "in a specific order"

    • @gpaps7787
      @gpaps7787 Před 2 lety

      Same lol

    • @unhommequicourt
      @unhommequicourt Před 2 lety +19

      I figured it out even before that. I wonder if he interviewed people who got it real quick and didn t keep it in the footage?

  • @JoeHarkinsHimself
    @JoeHarkinsHimself Před 9 měsíci

    glad you mentioned The Black Swan when discussing cognitive bias . . . as you correctly point out it has a conceptual flaw hidden in the choice of the animal used to illustrate the issue. But there is still useful information in that kind of metaphor if you shift the focus to what can happen and even may happen. A different animal is helpful. Consider "The Gray Rhino" . . . just google that phrase.

  • @dricka49221
    @dricka49221 Před rokem +3

    I figured it out before the people did, but only by 1 or 2 people. I of course initially thought each number was double of the preceding. However, when the first person did not follow that rule, I started thinking about what else could it be, and happened to guess the correct answer!

  • @miyasensuree9482
    @miyasensuree9482 Před 8 lety +245

    I farted in the bus.
    Four people turned around.
    I felt like I was on the voice.

    • @elliskane3
      @elliskane3 Před 8 lety

      Miya Sensuree Oh my goodness, that's hilarious! :P

    • @Handelsbilanzdefizit
      @Handelsbilanzdefizit Před 8 lety +1

      Miya Sensuree great job

    • @voltzzhd532
      @voltzzhd532 Před 8 lety

      Best comment ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • @MyVoid312
      @MyVoid312 Před 8 lety

      Miya Sensuree copy pasta..

    • @juni_pers
      @juni_pers Před 8 lety

      dem copy and paste skills!

  • @LA2047
    @LA2047 Před 2 lety +249

    You've just described how most people seek news nowadays: not to learn, but to conform to their preconceived notions of what they've decided are "rules." They seek confirmation, not knowledge.

    • @jordyv.703
      @jordyv.703 Před 2 lety +22

      It's always been like this.

    • @LA2047
      @LA2047 Před 2 lety +9

      @@jordyv.703 Except I'm old enough to remember that it has not been. There's always been an element of that, but since the age of the internet everyone with an opinion and a wifi connection thinks they're a "news outlet," which has amplified that element into the mainstream.

    • @jordyv.703
      @jordyv.703 Před 2 lety +19

      @@LA2047 It's just a lot more obvious right now because of how easy it is to communicate. These cognitive biases have been in our dna for probably millions of years. If you really want an example of this, just look at religion. They are a result of seeking an answer instead of trying to prove it wrong. It's just how we are as a species

    • @LA2047
      @LA2047 Před 2 lety +6

      @@jordyv.703 Can't argue with that.

    • @jordyv.703
      @jordyv.703 Před 2 lety +8

      @@LA2047 I get your point too though. It's easier for cognitive biases to play out now because there's less consequences when you're wrong.

  • @jjaapp18
    @jjaapp18 Před 10 měsíci +1

    I already had the answer from the beginning, but I always think of several answers when asked a question, with the possibility of one or more being wrong. Not really sure when I started thinking that way.

  • @MagicalDanny
    @MagicalDanny Před rokem +2

    I don't have the bias I guess. My first ask (in my mind as I followed along) was if 3 5 7 followed the rule? Then I asked if 3 2 1 followed the rule to see if the rule was simply just ascending numbers. I am a math major with a computer science minor so I wonder if there's any correlation with people who deal with numbers a lot/do a lot of problem solving or trial and error.

  • @marktaro
    @marktaro Před 2 lety +173

    Using this 'rule' while learning anything new can be very helpful. Basically, trying to break the rules to see what doesn't work is just as valuable as seeking what does work.

    • @calleja332
      @calleja332 Před rokem +7

      This is exactly what I told the judge at my petty theft trial!

  • @Haleyh629
    @Haleyh629 Před 2 lety +123

    That golden retriever in the back going absolutely wild

  • @shrihanshetty8859
    @shrihanshetty8859 Před 4 měsíci

    Broo. I got my pen and paper out and was calculated the difference between each number and at the start, the difference only doubled(2,4,8....), then were in an order(1,2,3...) or follow a table(5,10,15..... ) or remaining constand(1,1,1.....). It never occurred to me that it could be the order in which the number are kept, ascending or descending. Great video as always.

  • @SocraTetris
    @SocraTetris Před rokem +3

    I know this is an older video, but I would be curious on your take on whether "disprove a positive" or "prove a negative" are the same or different, and how so?

  • @ghostderazgriz
    @ghostderazgriz Před 2 lety +546

    "16, 32, 64"
    "Follows my rule"
    Oh ok, then each number in the sequence is multiplied by 2
    "That is not the rule"
    Oh yeah? Hmmm I'll have to propose some other set of numbers unrelated to that rule in order to glean* new information.
    "3, 6, 12"
    wait no....

    • @bumblebottom961
      @bumblebottom961 Před 2 lety +3

      I got it! 10, 20, 40! ...wait that's not right

    • @Darthgipsyjoe
      @Darthgipsyjoe Před 2 lety +41

      To be honest asking 3, 6, 12 wasn't completely wrong. The rule could have been stricter than multiplication by 2, for example powers of 2 in an ascending order.

    • @yomommashaus
      @yomommashaus Před 2 lety +3

      @@Darthgipsyjoe or odd numbers

    • @DerAltruist
      @DerAltruist Před 2 lety +3

      Yeah listening to them keep trying the same thing over and over was frustrating

    • @pflernak
      @pflernak Před 2 lety +1

      @@Darthgipsyjoe or multiply thelast 2 numbers

  • @zanharris8697
    @zanharris8697 Před 2 lety +167

    I'm genuinely surprised no one decided to throw in decimals and/or negative numbers, after my third guess I thought "hmm, how about I say one random Decimal, one Negative, and one Positive (in that order)." that would have gotten me one step closer to discovering 'the Rule.'

    • @Pekara121
      @Pekara121 Před rokem +3

      True I was like „ hmmm what happens when i say 0 three times?“ 😂

    • @Toopa88
      @Toopa88 Před rokem

      @@Pekara121 Same :)

    • @sillyking1991
      @sillyking1991 Před rokem

      @tyler954 while i agree with you in principle (basically, by having the sequence follow a seemingly more complex rule you obfuscate the relative simplicity of the rule)...I do think most people would actually say oxygen, simply because 'food, water, air' is pretty much the standard answer to that question. at least in my experience.

    • @marslara
      @marslara Před rokem

      ​@Tyler Okay but if they repeatedly offer numbers under the same idea that's just dumb lol
      If the guys asked you to guess a number and he said it's not 1 but you keep guessing 1 uh..

  • @DoLetsStop
    @DoLetsStop Před 7 měsíci

    I thought maybe instead of 2 4 8 being multiplying by 2 it could be 2^1, 2^2, 2^3 so i thought maybe it was increasing the powers so it could be 3 9 27 for example

  • @sivavarma111
    @sivavarma111 Před 8 měsíci

    My 9th standard teacher taught us this in my childhood, I still remember the teacher very fondly she used to make things fun to learn

  • @falcychead8198
    @falcychead8198 Před 2 lety +344

    The "black swan" example leads to a logical fallacy that is often made by people with fringe beliefs. It is true that if all the swans you've seen are white, that in itself does not prove "all swans are white." But that is not an argument _for_ the existence of black swans, because by that same reasoning you could argue the existence of green swans, polka-dot swans, two-necked swans, etc.
    For instance, the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. In pre-Copernican times you could argue that that assertion was based on cognitive bias, but it wouldn't support the idea that the sun could rise in the west and set in the east, even once the geocentric model had been disproved. There has to be a concrete example of an exception, or else some causative argument for an exception.

    • @Mcskittelybiscuts
      @Mcskittelybiscuts Před 2 lety +23

      It's why as a believer of God I try my hardest not to get into a scientific argument but instead to challenge them to come and see, to ask a God they do not believe in to reveal himself to them, and to actually be open to Him doing so. However, it's very rare for me to come across real people who refuse to believe in God because of what has been observed on a scientific matter, it always seems to be a rather personal issue that is quite deep. Family death, suffering, loss, all of which God promises to restore, requiring nothing of you but to stand before Him. Sorry, no need to preach on CZcams comments. It's just not scientific facts or theories that turn people away from God although it's a quick an easy excuse that needs no further investigation.

    • @dazzlemasseur
      @dazzlemasseur Před 2 lety +4

      @@Mcskittelybiscuts I didn't think I'd see a religious person in the comments. Hello :D !

    • @brittanyismebb
      @brittanyismebb Před 2 lety +34

      What’s interesting though is that in this situation, “truth” is relative. For the person who has been searching for black swans all their life, their reality based on (their) evidence is that there are no black swans. That’s when you can say, maybe there are I just haven’t seen them myself. That’s where religion and gods gets involved too. For someone who reads the Bible and listen to their religious leaders, “the evidence” they know is the one they see. But once you do the research to try to find the plot holes in your belief system (where the Bible originated, who compiled it and why, what was left out, why and what other religions believe…) you realize the things you have been taught to justify as truth based on bias and tradition are not facts but merely imperfect perceptions swayed by human thinking. Easily manipulated by money, power, and ethical dilemmas. And that’s the whole world baby. That’s how it works. “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” Ooh look, more evidence of the Bible’s sagacity!? No.
      I could declare: “in the future, man’s technology will produce flying cars.” And I wouldn’t be a saint or a prophet. Just a cognitive analyst. And those who wanted to hold my words as prophetic could ensure a world of flying cars, therefore sealing the evidence as “proof” of my foresight, as well as all the others contained in the sacred youtube comments….
      For the Bible to be edited, translated and produced by politicians, and religious leaders, (the leaders of the world) and then declared “truth” by the conditions they cause….it has become a manual on how to conform to the will of the “experts” and never rely on your own thinking and intuition.

    • @Shikamaru747
      @Shikamaru747 Před 2 lety +26

      @@Mcskittelybiscuts I'm not sure if that's a universal rule... I was raised to be open to religion in general but not taught any specific one. I ended up becoming nonreligious just cause I don't see a need to posit the existence of God. I'm not saying He definitely doesn't exist, just that everything seems explainable enough to me without Him.

    • @Mcskittelybiscuts
      @Mcskittelybiscuts Před 2 lety +5

      @@brittanyismebb I would say this is a valid argument for many if not all religions except my own. Let me state first why that is not ignorant. For there to be a perfect truth than, it would logically allow just one religion to be true. The outcomes of my religion, Christianity, is so massively against everything you stated as being a reason to create a manmade religion. Christ teaches to deny oneself for their brother, and then goes on to extend it to their enemies, to sell everything and give to the poor, to lay down one's life for another to live, to care for the orphans and widows. You are very true that even this religion of mine has been manipulated by those in power to instill control, but if you follow your own logic and instead rely upon your own thinking and intuition and apply it to the actual scriptures of the Bible reading the very words yourself, I am sure you would come to the same conclusion that I have. Christ is the center of the entire Bible and his sacrifice and teachings are our greatest hope as humans.
      The amazing thing is you live in a time that you can very easily research and read these things for yourself, please do not take an article as good enough, but find the scriptures either in their original languages or the photos of the 2000 year old texts, and read them. At least read the translated version and if that upsets you, no need for further investigation, but I have a hard time believing that Christ was made up so that people in power could have control.

  • @kosmaslemo
    @kosmaslemo Před 3 lety +610

    Aaaaand this is how you get flat earthers
    "I dont want to find the truth, I want proof that my truth is right"

    • @leebreakwell3790
      @leebreakwell3790 Před 3 lety +5

      A delusional comment, from a round fluffy flock member.

    • @jannetteberends8730
      @jannetteberends8730 Před 3 lety +8

      @85 85 no it’s not. Religion is a belief. Actually you can’t proof it. You belief it or not.

    • @nicbajitogaming8947
      @nicbajitogaming8947 Před 3 lety +11

      @@jannetteberends8730 Thats worst imo

    • @ThirdLawPair
      @ThirdLawPair Před 3 lety +23

      Even better than trying to disprove a rule is to find the ways in which a rule is a helpful simplification, and then find the limits of where that simplification is no longer valid. For modestly imprecise measurements over reasonably short distances, the earth IS flat. But there are very many contexts in which a flat earth simplification fails to predict important phenomena.

    • @cavemann_
      @cavemann_ Před 3 lety +10

      @@jannetteberends8730 That's the problem. They never question if they are wrong. It's either people fit their set of beliefs or not. The whole notion of belief itself is something that you can't prove physically nor mathematically. Trying to argue with someone that grounds their arguments in human emotions and preconceptions (belief) instead of rationality is a lost cause.

  • @thewickedtrain2227
    @thewickedtrain2227 Před 4 měsíci

    Sister, you just blew my brain out of the stinkin water holy heck, that was EYE OPENING

  • @dannybee9068
    @dannybee9068 Před 11 měsíci +2

    I love black swan book, I read it which seems to me not that long ago but it such a damn good book for anyone. I was reading when I was learning Data Science and I was looking into it as a statistician and was trying to find sense in that way. But after watching this video I realized that I NEED to reread it and this time properly

  • @marjgalangco9954
    @marjgalangco9954 Před 3 lety +95

    “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.” ~ Richard Feynman

  • @NumbToons
    @NumbToons Před 7 lety +333

    Did this with my friends,, it took them 1 week to answer ,
    Now nobody talks to me.

  • @raggedclawstarcraft6562

    I, all of the sudden, don't have this bias. This video confirmed that to me. I learned really long ago that falsifiability is important in science, and I came up to the idea that you must have a doubt, always, also really long ago (because you can be 100% certain only in facts that proven to happen independently from a human being's cognitive functions, as well as if it is proven absolutely by math and logical methods).
    But... To my shame I not always followed this rule, and it also costed me money. So yeah, I could be proud of myself, and tell everyone that "hey, look at me, I don't have this bias", but it's not only to not have this bias, but also it is to actually follow this rule when it needed. So this vid still opened something to me. Or rather expanded something I was familiar with already.

  • @emanuelcaparelli
    @emanuelcaparelli Před rokem +1

    True! And even among those who practice the scientific method, there is cognitive bias. How often are studies designed within the scope of what is already considered possible. How often is research done into that which seems anomalous but is actually a whole new area of which we lack the context to see the pattern?

  • @PepsiFuture
    @PepsiFuture Před 9 lety +231

    I'm going to be completely honest. I figured out the rule about 2 minutes in. It kinda made me sad when they took a few moments to double 32

  • @whywhy8276
    @whywhy8276 Před 7 lety +1466

    Guess my rule: 34

  • @TheDizeazedKiller
    @TheDizeazedKiller Před rokem +2

    Knew where this was going within the first 10 seconds. Bless HPMoR for teaching this and many other useful things while deconstructing Rowling's world

  • @zak-a-roo264
    @zak-a-roo264 Před rokem

    Have been working with illusionary art ,never been good w #'s, so stoked i got this before you told us.

  • @AndrewVanLare
    @AndrewVanLare Před 8 lety +645

    The sentence below is false.
    The sentence above is true

    • @AndrewVanLare
      @AndrewVanLare Před 8 lety +93

      Everything about this sentence is false.

    • @MrPicooZ
      @MrPicooZ Před 8 lety +21

      +Andrew Van Lare The Word incorrectly is allways spelled incorrectly except it was spelled incorrectly.

    • @shmosel_
      @shmosel_ Před 8 lety +16

      A sentence cannot be true or false unless it contains a statement. A sentence declaring a sentence to be true or false does not contain a statement unless the sentence in question contains a statement. Neither of your sentences can be demonstrated to be stating anything, therefore they are both neither true nor false.

    • @AndrewVanLare
      @AndrewVanLare Před 8 lety +6

      Actually the statement is that the sentence is true or false that is a statement so I don't know what you are talking about

    • @shmosel_
      @shmosel_ Před 8 lety +2

      +Andrew Van Lare A sentence would need to make sense in order to constitute a statement. If I declare, "this bike is false," that sentence would not be true or false, since it does not contain a logical statement.

  • @lasarousi
    @lasarousi Před 2 lety +217

    The whole time I was thinking, say a repeating number. Repeat a number.
    That's why being your own Devils advocate is so important.

    • @michaelcoughran5793
      @michaelcoughran5793 Před 2 lety +5

      Same! I was hoping for someone to say, "one one one" hahaha

    • @David-lm5bf
      @David-lm5bf Před 2 lety +2

      @Twinsen Sendell As a programmer myself I got it in roughly 1 or 2 mins. I was initialy thinking too complex but quickly realized that so I went to simplify my own rule that'd fit a case where most people would name their sequence in. Which then raised the question "ok, so what if I name a sequence that went down rather than up"

    • @David-lm5bf
      @David-lm5bf Před 2 lety

      @Twinsen Sendell Yeah I agree, and I often catch myself doing that. So when I end up realising that, the first thing I do is to simplify it and more often than not it's a lot closer to the answer.

    • @redtoadgames4730
      @redtoadgames4730 Před 2 lety

      @@David-lm5bf Me too. As soon as "2,4,7", was confirmed to fit, I realised the answer was probably just 'ascending'. Lazy coders always look for the simplest route!

    • @jwmmitch
      @jwmmitch Před 2 lety

      I thought someone early on gave descending numbers and he said it fit the rule, so that threw me off, but I was thinking "say 2,2,3 or 1,2,1" of course we are viewers of a video having a bit more observing ego than being the one on the spot trying to figure it out live.

  • @magicmulder
    @magicmulder Před 9 měsíci

    Took me half a minute to figure it out. Then again I’m used to “what’s the next number” riddles. Once it was clear that doubling wasn’t the rule, ascending was the next logical step (with possible exceptions like “second is bigger than first, third doesn’t matter” etc.)

  • @DavidBadilloMusic
    @DavidBadilloMusic Před 9 měsíci

    This is such an old video, but so relevant, especially in these times when people prefer to say "fake news" or "I don't believe it" or worse "I don't care"!
    People come up with an assumption they think explains whatever they are looking into and stop right there thinking they have the answer!