My daughter and one of her friends came home and out of boredom, they decided to bake muffins for a snack. She took out all the baking ingredients. They converted imperial to metric, measured and mixed. They preheated the oven and converted Celsius to Fahrenheit. They greased the muffin tin and filled 12 large cavities. Then they put the muffin tray into the oven. It didn’t fit. They tried putting it in diagonally. It was worse. I watched them struggle for a good 10 seconds before they realized to slide the tray lengthwise so that it sits in the oven in ‘landscape’, rather than ‘portrait’ orientation.
I looked at them. Stunned. I couldn’t believe how these kids who are enrolled in a special academic program can convert metric and imperial in their heads, refactored a recipe for 8 muffins to make 12, substitute ingredients like yogurt for sour cream, watch TV, have a video call with friends while listening to music but can’t do simple geometry! They knew I was watching them and as I slipped my lower jaw back in place, I asked, “How have you kids not walked into sharp objects, yet?” They laughed! But I have some clues and hopefully some explanations why smart people can sometimes make the worst decisions.
How have you kids not walked into sharp objects, yet?
Analysis paralysis. There are in an infinite number of pathways between two points and some people think it’s academic prowess to explore them all simultaneously. Guess that’s why standardized tests are awful predictors to success.
Cognitive biases. Some people use mental shortcuts as a way to assess and process huge amounts of data quickly. In this approach, unconscious preconceptions are introduced and like chaos theory, a small affinity can have huge implications in skewing the interpretation.
Rote vs creativity. Some people love to follow a template that serves as an authority to all other examples. Life has no playbook and memorized rules may not always apply.
Structure vs unstructured. We teach our kids to operate in goal-oriented, result-based outcomes. That’s great for solving complex problems that are data driven. But sometimes, there is no logic and ambiguous data in unrelated situations requires us to deploy fuzzy-logic.
At the end of the day, I’d rather smart kids acting dumb than dumb kids acting smart. Smart kids will figure it out whereas dumb kids won’t know better and may make stuff up hoping a solution can be held together with bubble gum and dumb luck.
“When are the muffins going to be ready?” I asked. They said that the recipe calls for 25 minutes but given the size and power of this oven, they suggested shaving a little more than 20% off and will check at 18. I deadpanned a look and said, “You guys can’t figure out how to put a tray in the oven but you can compensate for wattage, temperature variance in that oven’s cubic space. Hm. You guys will turn out fine. Let’s hope the muffins will too.”
