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Puzzle Shows Our Need to Slow Down and Pay Attention
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In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, the Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman uses a simple puzzle to show the importance of slowing down and paying attention. Kahneman writes, "Do not try to solve [this puzzle] but listen to your intuition:
A bat and a ball cost $1.10.
The bat costs one dollar more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?"
Kahneman writes that most people come up with a quick answer—10 cents.
The distinctive mark of this easy puzzle is that it evokes an answer that is intuitive, appealing, and wrong. Do the math, and you'll see. If the ball costs 10 cents, then the total cost will be $1.20 (10 cents for the ball and $1.10 for the bat), not $1.10. The correct answer is 5 cents.
If you got the puzzle wrong, don't be discouraged. According to Kahneman's research, more than 50 percent of students at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton gave the wrong answer. At less selective universities, over 80 percent of students failed the puzzle.
Kahneman notes that solving this puzzle doesn't depend on intelligence as much as it depends on our willingness to slow down, focus intently, and pay attention.
Throughout the Bible and the history of the church, many writers have also emphasized how important it is to slow down, focus intently, and pay attention in our walk with Christ. But as Kahneman's research proves, paying attention often doesn't come naturally to us. We have to work at paying attention.
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Bruce Kochsmeier
You've got to be kidding! As a sermon illustration this would be SO confusing and you'd never get people back. There are way to many possibilities and people would be thinking about THEIR solution while the sermon goes on.
CHRIS EDERESINGHE
Sometimes it is easy to jump to hasty conclusions ( such as the immediate hasty conclusion that the bat = $1.00 and ball + 10 cts.. Too many people (including many Christians) often jump to hasty spiritual conclusions based on apparent contradictions in the Bible. The Bible needs to be searched (John 5:39), and studied (2 Timothy 2:15), not just hastily skimmed over or randomly perused. The Bible is not a buffet where one can pick and choose what suits one'ss tastes and fancy,; rather, it is a banquet, where the entire meal has to be eaten!!
Bill Heatley
ball + (ball + $1.00) = $1.10 ball + ball = $.10 ball = $.05 The bat is the cost of the ball plus $1.00 and then you still have to buy the ball.
Walter Griffen
Or, think of it this way. If both the bat and the ball are $.05 and then you tell me the bat costs $1 more than the ball, the answer would be $1.05. Someone out there is laughing their heads off at us as we are missing the original point.
Walter Griffen
If the bat is $1.00 more than the ball, then the difference between the two is $1.05 and the ball is $.05. Again, you have to slow down and think about it, and just like the 3D visual puzzles, it takes a bit.
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