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Are People Crazy or Really Smart?
What you can learn from an ‘idiot’, a ‘jerk’ and a homeless man to get what you want
Three stories and three takeaways for you.
Story #1 — the ‘Idiot’
I heard the story of a young boy who was with his friends. His friends played a trick with the young boy. They offered him two coins: one big coin, worth $1, and one smaller coin, worth $2. They told him he could pick one coin, and he could keep that coin. The boy, perhaps not knowing any better, picked the bigger coin, thinking that bigger coins are worth more. His friends howled with laughter and made fun of him. Then, they would repeat this activity multiple times, each time, the boy chose the bigger $1 coin, and his friends would laugh and make fun of him.
After a while, an adult witnessed this interaction between the boy and his friends. He pulled the boy aside and said, “Hey, do you know that the smaller coin is worth $2 and the bigger coin is worth $1? You keep choosing the bigger coin, but it is worth less than the smaller coin.”
The boy innocently replied, “Yes, but how many times have they offered me the choice?”
That boy, who you may have thought was an idiot, is incredibly smart. He thought ahead to how his friends would react. He…
