Fire the Bowl
How Many “E’s?”
☼ The way we put information into categories can cause us to miss important details ☼
Instructions: How many times does the letter “e” appear in the text below? Go through the text only once without re-checking. Everyone report. After everyone has reported, count again. This time you can re-check.
Everyone knows the alphabet. Some can even say it backwards. With the advent of the typewriter and computers, more and more people are also able to type the alphabet. There are those who type with two fingers. There are those who type with eight fingers. The point is that with the rising number of typists in the world, some consequences can be seen. First, the indisputable fact is that fewer and fewer people are writing letters with simple pen and paper. Second, the number of people with carpal tunnel syndrome, the nasty pain in the wrist that comes from too much bending back and forth, is on the rise. In the not-too-distant future, we might see the end of that age old art of letter writing. It may be the doctors who make out the best in the end.
Key Words:False Confidence, Effort, Hidden Assumptions, Prejudice
Discussion:
- How different were the group’s answers?
- How carefully did you have to check and re-check to get the right
answer?
- Is this how careful you usually are in investigating before you state a
“fact?”
- How many things do we assume about others with nowhere near as much time and care used to investigate the facts?
Tihs Smees Issmpobile:
☼ We need to be able to lump ideas together in categories to learn. ☼
Raed Tihs:
Tihs iusllrtatoin of bais is ralely qitue aamzgnig. The fcat taht you can raed tihs jmulbe of cnolvnuetd ltetres swohs how fanscitanig the biarn is. To mkae snsee of the wlrod, we hvae to be albe to put tinhgs itno caegtoreis. Otrehsiwe, we wluod hvee to laren eervytnig oevr and oevr aaign form sraccth. You nticoe taht you olny need the frsit and lsat lteters to be acutcare in odrre to udsnretand the mnaenig of this msegase. The oheter lteretrs can be in any oderr and you slitl can pceie it tgotheer. Pterty nftiy, huh? It’s a pterty vaubllae slikl of the bairn. Pobrelms biegn, of cuosre, wehn we oevlorok iprotmnat dteials taht cmpoletley atelr the maneing.
Key Wrdos:Ctareeigos, Gneelraizaoitn, Larennig, Bais, Pjreduice
Dcssuoisn:
-Can you tnihk of a suatition wehre pttunig inrfmoaoitn into caegtoreis is hpleufl?
-Wehn can pttunig infromaoitn itno ceatgroeis cuase errros in jdguenmt?
-Waht do we hvee to do to graud aaigsnt tihs tpye of eorrr?
-Do we put tnihgs in ctareeigos beausce we are maen, or deos it just happen beausce that is how our nreouvs sstyem wroks?
-Waht deos tihs say aoubt our bais twroad ohter popele? Is it awlyas maen sipirted?
-If we are not maen spriited, deos that maen we are not baiesd?
In the nxet erxcesie, we wlil osbrvee how tihs ailbtiy to caegtrozie can laed to mssniig ipmroatnt daietls.