Odd One Out

Solution

Congratulations! You picked the right answer! But wait a minute! How do I know you picked the right one? Clicking the picture did not reveal the answer. Let's look at all the shapes again:

Circle: This is the only shape which is completely symmetrical.

Torus (doughnut shape): This is the only shape which is not solid.

Crescent: This is the only shape which is solid and not completely convex (i.e. there are points which can be connected by a straight line that goes outside the shape).

Half-circle: This is the only shape which has a straight edge.

So all of the shapes could be considered to be the "odd one out." In fact, you could have picked any shape for a completely different reason from those given above. In one of his books, Herbert Simon coined the term "satisficer." He defined it as somebody who stopped searching the haystack when they found the first needle. An "optimizer", on the other hand, would search the entire haystack in order to be able to find all the needles. Most of us simply don't have time to be optimizers. Furthermore, even when we do have time, there is a real temptation to be a satisficer - that is, to find one solution and stop. From an early age, our school system teaches us to find "the answer." In some limited situations (for instance, solving a set of simultaneous equations), perhaps there is only one solution. However, for the vast majority of real, practical problems that face us today, there may be two or three or many possible solutions.

So this is the first mind game lesson:

To visit the origin of this and other mind game lessons see:

www.gihanperera.com/mindgames/lessons.html