Thursday, June 29, 2006

simpolistic complexity

There is a Charlie Brown episode where they are taking a math test and peppermint patty asks marcie what she wrote for a certain question. Marcie replied with a number (I don't remember which) and peppermint patty says, "I wrote green" Green? Was the surprised response. She replied, "I thought it was a trick question."

People sometimes complicate simple things for no reason. It isn't because they are less intelligent or are missing something, it's because they think that life is more complicated then it really is.

On the other hand, sometimes people take things that are very complex and try to provide a simple solution that doesn't fully answer the need.

Therein lies the problem.

3 comments:

Rolling hills of green said...

so what's the problem.

rockofgalilee said...

you have to read the whole thing.

traintalk said...

Is there a simpolishtic aspect here?
How is it we react to a question as:
a. straight arrow
b. curve ball, slider or knickle ball
c. a non starter
d. too naive or too experienced
e. none of the above
Is this ability genetic or acquired?
I kept reading the whole thing time again and then again. If I knew math was just numbers, I'd say you have a good point. But this is obviously a game theory issue and she got the right answer.