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”.
2 Responses to “Johnsburg, Illinois (or, An exercise in fooling ourselves)”
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