Kaleidoscope of Feelings


This summer vacation, we subscribed to this online course called Logiqids for our 8 yo daughter. It’s about developing logical thinking, and they provide online worksheets, each with 10 multiple-choice questions. The format and the skills it helps develop all reminded me of those IIM entrance papers back when I was at college…

The site offers the option to download the worksheet, solve it offline, and then submit the answers online. That’s the option she uses. Of late, I let her solve it herself, then we go over her answers (or questions she couldn’t solve), before submitting them.

There was this one question she did that both impressed me and annoyed me. I was impressed because it was complex (X is 10 years older than Y; Y is 6 years younger than Z; Z is 18, so how old is X?), and yet she had identified the way to solve it (the right additions and subtractions) correctly. But I was annoyed she’d done the calculations wrong. She got the hard part right, but had messed up the easy part.

So I asked her to re-do the calculations. She did it right this time. Then I started switching windows to get to the browser to sumbit her answers and what do I see? The Calculator application was open and the correct answer was staring back at me!

I didn’t know what to feel. Amused that she’d “cheated” and used the Calculator to do the calculation? Or annoyed that knew of the right tool, had applied it right, and yet picked the wrong option from the multiple choices?

It’s amazing how a kid can induce a kaleidoscope of feelings in such a short timeframe!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why we Deceive Ourselves

In their book, The Elephant in the Brain , the authors describe this weird aspect of deception that we practice: deceiving ourselves! That is so weird: “If our minds contain maps of our worlds, what good comes from having an inaccurate version of these maps?” The Sigmund Freud school of thought treats self-deception as a defense mechanism, “a way for the ego to protect itself”. The mind seeks to protect itself from anxiety and other negative emotions. Many object to this reasoning: since accurate information is so critical to our survival, surely distorting information would be dangerous. Wouldn’t the goal of protecting our self-esteem have been better achieved by making the brain’s self-esteem mechanism stronger instead? The new school of thought explains self-deception as “primarily outward-facing, manipulative, and ultimately self-serving”. This is based on Thomas Schelling’s work on game theory: “In a variety of scenarios, limiting or sabotaging yourself is the winn...
Read more

Europe #3 - Innsbruck

The last city we visited in Europe was Innsbruck in the Austrian Alps. After the cold and windy experience (at times) of Paris and Netherlands, Innsbruck was a wonderful change – it didn’t feel that cold, it was not windy all of which made it easy to walk around. Something absolutely necessary given how scenic the place is.   Since the hotel check-in time was much later in the day, we left the baggage and went to the Swarovski HQ-cum-museum about an hour by bus from Innsbruck. The crystal exhibits were brilliant – colorful, bright, shiny. Jewellery aside, it was a display of what one can do with crystals. While my wife and daughter loved the jewellery, I liked the superhero themed exhibits of Batman, Spiderman, the Hulk, and Star Wars. We didn’t buy anything there, though we did buy stuff in the Swarovski store in Innsbruck – jewellery, not the superhero stuff.   Innsbruck is a major tourist attraction during the skiing season but now in summer, we saw many groups of ...
Read more

The Thrill of the Chase

So many people complain about the difficulty in making decisions while shopping. Do you buy Brand X that gives 20% extra free? Or Brand Y that has 10% off? Or Brand Z that gives something else free with it? Do you buy that flat screen TV today or wait for the sale at Diwali? Now since the customer is king, shouldn’t companies be simplifying pricing choices? Like maybe offering consistently low prices all the time? Not so fast, as the US store, JC Penney discovered to its cost. Turns out that while people do complain about pricing choices, they are irrational. Also, they enjoy the thrill of the chase. Huh? The word “sale” acts like a siren call for many people: it lures them in to make that purchase. Consistently low prices don’t do the same. Besides, if a competitor lowers their prices just one time of the year, and Poof! Suddenly that low price claim becomes suspect in shoppers’ eyes. Then there are those sites that offer coupons: have lunch at Restaurant A on Wedne...
Read more