What You Don't Know

### Cold Open

"Most of us navigate our daily lives with relative esse. You drive your car, cook your food, use your computers, and talk on your phone like you were born to do it. But have you ever stopped to think about the things you don't know? And we're not just talking about what you did or didn't learn in the classroom. We're asking some college students the same question."

## Games

### Game #1: The Bus

If this bus started driving forward, which way would it go? Left or Right?

Result: Left, but why?

Why: Most kids under the age of 10 get this right because of the fact that the door is on the other side and would let the passengers off at the curb. The reason adults struggle is because it's harder for adults to see the drawing as a simple bus. But this happens all the time in life. We come across problems we can't solve, and if we were honest with ourselves, we'd admit it. It's called the Illusion of Knowledge, meaning your brain is wired to provide an answer no matter what. It's a basic survival mechanism. Getting detailed about how an object works will leave your brain to fill in the blanks.,

### Game #2: Draw a Bike

After drawing a bike, will they draw it right? Easy enough, right? You can pick between 4 bikes on screen.

Result: They draw it incorrectly despite knowing, so there are a lot of fails.

So: Our mental models of the word are not always as accurate as we think, but our brain doesn't like feeling unsure, so your brain makes you feel more confident. Your brain would rather pretend to know something than to admit it doesn't and brings about a false sense of security.

### Game #3: Overconfidence is Real

Apollo Robins asks people trivia questions to people on the street. All you have to do is define a range and have the answer be within the range to be right.

Result: People get them wrong even though they didn't know the answers, and could give a range as big as they wanted. So why would you limit it?

Why: It's because of over-confidence. Inside your brain, your brain tries to hide the fact that you're incompetent.

### Game #4: The Classic Sentence Mishap

Read a sentence. Nothing off, right? New York in the the spring.

Result: There's an extra the.

Why: Your eyes don't focus on every word on the page when you read. You just sweep across the page and read chunks, leaving your brain to make sense of it. Your brain will try and provide you the least amount of information necessary to make sense of the world, leading to many other things getting discarded.

### Game #5: Choo Choo Train

Try and remember all the words on the train.

Result: When asked which word was on both trains, most people say Track. But why is it wrong? None of the words on the second train match the one on the first train. But it's to make a point.

Why: By putting train-related words, many people thought they saw the word track when it wasn't there at all on the first train. Rather than admit your brain doesn't know the answer, your brain remembered a word that wasn't even there. The Illusion of Knowledge has a big effect.

### Mini-game: The Bar Game

There are 3 glasses, make all them go face up in 3 turns.

Result: People get overconfident, depending on the way the glasses are set up. If you don't notice the positions, you'll never win.

### Game #6: Chercez la Femme(Find the Lady)

Keep track of three queens and an 8.

Result: The queens are gone.

So: Overconfidence can often leave you at a loss.

## List of Experts

* Shankar Vedantam
* Apollo Robins(Illusionist)