Feb 06 2009
Johnsburg, Illinois (or, An exercise in fooling ourselves)
It’s fairly well known that human beings are apt to fool themselves that coincidences have deeper meaning. I recently found a great little game to demonstrate this.
This is actually just a silly questions meme, but it has a nice mixture of producing answers that are (a) unrelated to any actual answers you would give and (b) demonstrating what kind of music you listen to. And like I said, it’s great for showing how easily we spot patterns in meaningless coincidence.
The rules are:
- Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.
- For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
- You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds!
This is what I got. How many of these do you think are relevant answers to the questions? I would say nearly a dozen.
- If someone says “is this okay” you say?
- 9th & Hennepin
- What would best describe your personality
- Terrific Speech 2
- What do you like in a guy/girl?
- Houston
- What is your life’s purpose?
- Weather Storm
- What is your motto?
- Mainstream
- What do your friends think of you?
- Sing for the Submarine
- What do you think about often?
- World Keeps Turning
- What is 2+2?
- Everything You Can Think
- What do you think of your best friend?
- Echoplex
- What is your life story?
- Breaking Into Heaven
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- A Sight for Sore Eyes
- What do you think when you see the person you like?
- Juliet (Keep That In Mind)
- What do your parents think of you?
- Prescilla
- What will you dance to at your wedding?
- All is Well
- What will they play at your funeral?
- Heads Will Roll
- What is your hobby/interest?
- Watch Her Disappear
- What is your biggest secret?
- Hunter
- What do you think of your friends?
- Don’t Know Why
- What’s the worst thing that could happen?
- Atoms for Peace
- How will you die?
- All Summer Long
- What is the one thing you regret?
- Foreign Affair
- What makes you laugh?
- Hike
- What makes you cry?
- Last Tide
- Will you ever get married?
- Leila Came Round and We Watched a Video
- What scares you the most?
- Bigger Than Me
- Who likes you?
- Generation Y?
- If you could go back in time, what would you change?
- You Don’t Know Jesus
- What hurts right now?
- Scotland’s Shame
- What will you post this as?
- Johnsburg, Illinois
I particularly enjoyed “what is the one thing you regret? — foreign affair” and “what hurts right now? — Scotland’s shame”.
Ahem steals this and runs to own blog
my best ones were ‘what do you think when you see someone you like’ -Against the wall ‘what do you think of your best friend’ - She’s a star and finally the one with Woo factor: ‘Mode of death’ - Running on Empty ‘caused I used that phrase to describe Tom Conlon who died just before Christmas, but them again it is my play-list so no surprise really