# Things that make you feel stupid **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 29, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308 "2012-02-29T02:37:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/21 "2012-02-29T20:59:02Z")
Playing the game Memory makes me feel like a complete idiot or someone with a severe head injury or something. My memory is perfectly fine in most ways, but for some reason I’ve always been amazingly bad at that game. In high school I tutored a little kid (a kid who needed tutoring because he wasn’t that bright and had a very short attention span) and he would get mad and think I must be letting him win. Which I wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/22 "2012-02-29T21:23:18Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Not to say it isn’t an amazing feat of mental power that I could not come close to matching, but there’s a trick to it: the chessmaster plays a standard defense in each game, and merely notes how each opponent’s moves vary. That is, in standard defenses as many as eight or ten moves into the game you are playing by rote, primarily because all the options have been analyzed and any variation leads inevitably to a weak position that not-quite-so-inevitably, but still pretty durned inevitably, leads to defeat. Balderdash. The number of possible positions even just 8 or 10 moves into the game is huge. The guy really is smart enough to remember each board. Now, of course each board isn’t just random, but it’s not just some standard game either. > [@phouka](#): > > Economics. > > I took the semester class in high school just like everyone else. I did just fine. I get things like supply vs. demand, inelastic supply, diminishing return, that sort of thing. > > What I don’t get is the experts on tv talking about how if pork bellies go up, then Armenia will be in armed rebellion while Alabama will have a surplus of toilet paper, which will cause the scientists in the Antarctic to horde sausages, which will lead to another rise in pork belly futures, so the Armenians will all go home and knit fuzzy caps, which will cause the Antiguans to rewrite their constitution. > > At least, that’s what it sounds like to me. Nah, you understand perfectly. Those guys are simply making things up for the most part. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/23 "2012-02-29T22:01:20Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > I just watched a [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCyYPimImyM&feature=player_embedded) where a guy looked at a Rubik’s cube for about 15 seconds, put on a blindfold, and then solved the Rubik’s cube in about 15 seconds. > > Holy shit. I wouldn’t be able to do that in a billion years. > > So what’s made you feel stupid lately? (First one to say “reading your posts” wins.) Certainly difficult but conceptually, it’s just a matter of memorizing six 3x3 arrays. A few mnemonics and a lot of practice and it’s doable. As for solving the puzzle, it’s just a few rote maneuvers that you repeat one after another until the puzzle is done. More practice but not inconceivable. It’s something I think I could learn if I devoted a year or so to practicing it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/24 "2012-02-29T22:09:48Z")
The thing that amazes me is when I see someone being creative. Doesn’t matter if it’s a story, a song, or a drawing. It’s the ability to pull something out of nothing that gets me. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/25 "2012-03-01T02:01:07Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Nah, you understand perfectly. Those guys are simply making things up for the most part. See, I actually find that much more disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/26 "2012-03-01T05:24:28Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Balderdash. The number of possible positions even just 8 or 10 moves into the game is huge. The guy really is smart enough to remember each board. Now, of course each board isn’t just random, but it’s not just some standard game either. Unbalderdash! I never said it wasn’t a great feat of memory, but basically, the guy plays the same defense in each case, all he is remembering about each board is the way in which it varies from the standard attack/defense. The REALLY impressive feat is that once the game opens up from the standard pay, he can not only remember the board but calculated combinations several moves deep based on his memory, discarding weak ones and using the strong ones, and do it better than players who can see the board. > [@](#): > > Nah, you understand perfectly. Those guys are simply making things up for the most part. Many of the leading U.S. economists completely missed the 2008 crash. A science it ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/27 "2012-03-02T13:41:29Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Solving it? Screw that. Boring. > > How about designing and building [your own 3D puzzles?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a_DX8WDe8) The video is sped up to keep up with his narration, but even if he goes through it slowly, it’s still difficult to comprehend all of the things this guy is dealing with. son of a b… wow ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/28 "2012-03-02T14:44:17Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Many of the leading U.S. economists completely missed the 2008 crash. A science it ain’t. I once read a quip that said that as a science, economics ranks right up there with comparative literature. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/29 "2012-03-02T16:03:39Z")
My son got the game [Spot It!](http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/blue_orange/spot_it.cfm?source=google&kwid=Spot%20It&gclid=CMKj2JTKyK4CFUrWKgodcHwbBQ) for his birthday. I played it with my wife and she annihilated me every time. We showed it to some friends and I warned them how my wife is amazingly good at the game. They all played her and they are all as equally as good as her. It just turns out that I am amazingly bad at the game. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/30 "2012-03-02T16:25:34Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Not to say it isn’t an amazing feat of mental power that I could not come close to matching, but there’s a trick to it: the chessmaster plays a standard defense in each game, and merely notes how each opponent’s moves vary. That is, in standard defenses as many as eight or ten moves into the game you are playing by rote, primarily because all the options have been analyzed and any variation leads inevitably to a weak position that not-quite-so-inevitably, but still pretty durned inevitably, leads to defeat. I’m not sure if this is what you’re describing or not, but Darren Brown [beat 9 people simultaneously](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evZmpsl3jI0) simply by playing the previous opponent’s move against the next opponent. He explains it at 7:22 in the video. Opponent #1 was our own **glee** 🙂 Oh yeah - chess makes me feel stupid! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/31 "2012-03-02T17:10:47Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Not to say it isn’t an amazing feat of mental power that I could not come close to matching, but there’s a trick to it: the chessmaster plays a standard defense in each game, and merely notes how each opponent’s moves vary. That is, in standard defenses as many as eight or ten moves into the game you are playing by rote, primarily because all the options have been analyzed and any variation leads inevitably to a weak position that not-quite-so-inevitably, but still pretty durned inevitably, leads to defeat. 1. **It isn’t a trick**. it took me 4 years to learn how to play one game blindfold. (I did it by every night visualising a chess board on the ceiling. Eventually, there was one!) 2. **If your opponents want to, they can easily avoid standard lines.** I assure you that the Master has to hold each position clearly. One friend of mine tolds me that he played 12 games simultaneously by imagining 12 numbered cupboards in his mind, then when he was told “Board 4 plays Nc3”, he would open the cupboard door to board 4, then ‘see’ that position, analyse it … and so on. 3. **Even in standard openings, all the options have not been analysed**. Last night my game (I was Black) started: 4. e4 c6 5. d4 d5 6. exd5 cxd5 7. c4 Nf6 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. Nf3 Bg4 10. **c5** I had **never** seen this move before, despite playing this variation of the Caro-Kann about 50 times. 1. **Variations from opening theory happen all the time - they do not’ inevitably lead to a weak position’.** Master players do not memorise openings - they understand them. It’s true that it’s harder to come up with something new early on, but playing by rote memory is a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/32 "2012-03-02T17:21:18Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Unbalderdash! I never said it wasn’t a great feat of memory, but basically, the guy plays the same defense in each case, all he is remembering about each board is the way in which it varies from the standard attack/defense. The REALLY impressive feat is that once the game opens up from the standard pay, he can not only remember the board but calculated combinations several moves deep based on his memory, discarding weak ones and using the strong ones, and do it better than players who can see the board. I’m sorry, but this is completely make-believe. For example, I have been asked about chess with friends on a journey, where I was given a ending position\* and was able to both visualise the position and analyse it blindfold. Absolutely nothing to do with learning openings by heart, or knowing ‘standard play’ (whatever that is.) \*from memory: White King f3; Rook a1; pawns a6, f2, g3. h2 Black King f7; Rook a8; pawns e5, g7. h6 Every player does better by seeing the board. It’s also considerably less tiring. (Have you ever played a game blindfold? Where did you get these ideas from?) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/33 "2012-03-02T17:37:38Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I’m not sure if this is what you’re describing or not, but Darren Brown [beat 9 people simultaneously](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evZmpsl3jI0) simply by playing the previous opponent’s move against the next opponent. He explains it at 7:22 in the video. Opponent #1 was our own **glee** 🙂 > > Oh yeah - chess makes me feel stupid! Ah no, what Derren did is called ‘Mirror chess’. It’s still a true feat of memory (especially as Derren is not a chess player.) What he did involved memorising 4 moves in precise order on 4 adjacent boards, then walking round to play those moves (again in order) - whilst remembering another 4 moves to play when he returned to the original 4 boards. And he did that 60 times in a row, with no breaks and with no mistakes! (I found out afterwards that at one point he nearly played Bd6? instead of Bf6!, which would have meant he’d blown the whole thing.) Although we chess players knew it was happening, we were still impressed by Derren’s memory and professionalism. Mirror chess means you get an even result, no matter how many boards you play. What you’re doing is acting as a messenger between two players and not making any moves yourself. Oh, and Derren also beat a 9th player (thus winning 5-4.) This was the weakest player (and was the only player the rest of us didn’t know.) I don’t know how Derren beat this guy. I watched the game (it was alongside mine) and I would say Derren played like a 2200 strength player. There was a master listed on the credits of the TV program, but I don’t know how he passed the moves to Derren. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/34 "2012-03-02T18:52:06Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Unbalderdash! … I am SO using this as soon as the opportunity presents itself. And thank you for posting the link to the 3-D puzzle video, **Machine Elf**. I showed it to Mr. Horseshoe and, normally, he’ll politely watch a few minutes of whatever I’m showing him and then get bored. He sat through the whole thing staring intently like a cat watching a squirrel. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/35 "2012-03-02T19:11:20Z")
I can’t even [tie my shoes!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFcV7zuUDA) (trust me - watch that three minute video and tell me you don’t feel stupid.) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/36 "2012-03-02T19:21:19Z")
Pretty much any conversation with my 19 year old these days when the topic is something from school. I feel like a dog in a Far Side cartoon. I hear stuff like this: “And the transistor wah wah wah wah wah wah conductor wah wah wah wah circuit wah wah wah wahwahwah wah wah…” 😕 I was delighted last night when he saw my genuine attempt to understand and clarified something with, “you know, that little bit of wood in it, painted all stripey?” OH! Yeah, right…I’ve seen that before. No idea what it’s for, nor do I honestly care to learn, but that’s why you’re in this program of study and I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/37 "2012-03-02T19:25:31Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Solving it? Screw that. Boring. > > How about designing and building [your own 3D puzzles?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a_DX8WDe8) The video is sped up to keep up with his narration, but even if he goes through it slowly, it’s still difficult to comprehend all of the things this guy is dealing with. :: jaw drops :: I _can_ comprehend all the things that guy is dealing with [sub]except for the Johnson transform or whatever it was that changed the dodecahedron to a cube[/sub] and I am in awe. I want to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/38 "2012-03-02T19:49:25Z")
> [@glee](#): > > 1. **It isn’t a trick**. > it took me 4 years to learn how to play one game blindfold. (I did it by every night visualising a chess board on the ceiling. Eventually, there was one!) > > 2. **If your opponents want to, they can easily avoid standard lines.** > I assure you that the Master has to hold each position clearly. > One friend of mine tolds me that he played 12 games simultaneously by imagining 12 numbered cupboards in his mind, then when he was told “Board 4 plays Nc3”, he would open the cupboard door to board 4, then ‘see’ that position, analyse it … and so on. > > 3. **Even in standard openings, all the options have not been analysed**. > Last night my game (I was Black) started: > > 4. e4 c6 > > 5. d4 d5 > > 6. exd5 cxd5 > > 7. c4 Nf6 > > 8. Nc3 Nc6 > > 9. Nf3 Bg4 > > 10. **c5** > > I had **never** seen this move before, despite playing this variation of the Caro-Kann about 50 times. > > 1. **Variations from opening theory happen all the time - they do not’ inevitably lead to a weak position’.** > > Master players do not memorise openings - they understand them. It’s true that it’s harder to come up with something new early on, but playing by rote memory is a bad idea. All right, I yield to your greater experience, though it leaves me wondering what the point of standardized openings might be. I had assumed they were standardized because the alternatives had been analyzed and found weaker. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/39 "2012-03-03T05:07:29Z")
Hilary Duff, Snooki, and Lauren Conrad writing novels. ---
**Author:** ![Molotok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Molotok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molotok)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308/40 "2012-03-03T05:35:33Z")
Phone numbers, house numbers, amounts of money. I’m quite good at maths (theories etc), but certain sets of numbers just jumble in my head. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-feel-stupid/614308.md?page=3)