# You can read one person's mind. Who would you pick? Or not pick? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 16, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941 "2019-12-16T15:00:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/1 "2019-12-16T15:00:32Z")
The magic genie gives you the power to read any person’s mind, living or dead. You can pick any person ever and read their every thought every day for a whole year. Who would you pick? Or definitely not pick? I’d pick Robin Williams. His mind must have been amazing. Not pick? Charles Manson. That stuff I don’t want to know. Who would you pick and not pick. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/2 "2019-12-16T15:06:56Z")
Kim Jong Un would be pretty fascinating. Despite his appearance of being a supreme dictator (which he is,) I’d bet he is wracked by all kinds of fear and worry and gnawing paranoia all the time. I do find it intriguing to know what dictators are thinking. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/3 "2019-12-16T15:15:02Z")
I’m not even comfortable reading _my_ mind. I’ll pass. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/4 "2019-12-16T15:26:31Z")
Blackjack dealer at the local casino. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/5 "2019-12-16T15:32:10Z")
I would read Donald Trump’s, as creepy and unsettling as it would be, and plumb the depths for the most disgusting and illegal stuff I could find. That which could be substantiated, I would pass along to the world media. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/6 "2019-12-16T17:32:25Z")
Assuming it’s translated to English… I would pick Jesus. However, a large number of people would not believe me if I told them what he really thought. And almost everyone would be too boring to listen to every thought for an entire year. I have better things to do. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/7 "2019-12-16T17:36:22Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > And almost everyone would be too boring to listen to every thought for an entire year. I have better things to do. Yeah, I really wouldn’t want to tune into the other person’s thoughts and have them be “I really have to take a dump.” or “My ass itches. I should have wiped better.” What I’d rather have is the ability to access people’s memories, not necessarily know what they’re thinking in the moment. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/8 "2019-12-16T17:57:17Z")
If I can turn it on and off then I’d like to read my wife’s mind. ---
**Author:** ![Emergency911](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@Emergency911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emergency911)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/9 "2019-12-16T18:13:47Z")
I’m with TriPolar. Only if I could turn it on and off. It would just be a huge relief to know what she wants to eat when we are trying to figure out where to go as well as what she wants for her Birthday, Christmas etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mnemnosyne](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mnemnosyne/32/3347_2.png) [@Mnemnosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnemnosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/10 "2019-12-16T18:33:33Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Blackjack dealer at the local casino. Too limited, and the casino would quickly believe you and he have some sort of arrangement and are cheating. Probably couldn’t make enough this way to be worth it, only a few tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands, but likely not in the millions. If you’re looking for financial gain, it’s hard to say who would make a better choice, but with a little work and research I bet someone involved in large stock transactions would be better. Effectively enable yourself to do ‘insider trading’ of some sort. In general, the ‘only for a year’ thing is a really limiting factor. Since OP indicates using it on people who are dead, it would mean having to pick a year to read. Off-hand, there are a lot of historical figures that might be interesting, but picking which year to pick up would suck. Like, it would be interesting to look at historical figures that made big mistakes and see what they were thinking, but the most interesting ones have mistakes that last over the course of several years. If I could read the mind of a historical figure throughout his lifetime instead of just for one year, I’d probably pick Otto von Bismarck. But there’s no specific year in his life that would make a sufficiently compelling choice to make me not have decision paralysis with that limitation. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/11 "2019-12-16T22:04:47Z")
> [@Emergency911](#): > > I’m with TriPolar. Only if I could turn it on and off. It would just be a huge relief to know what she wants to eat when we are trying to figure out where to go as well as what she wants for her Birthday, Christmas etc. Why the fascination with \*\*TriPolar’\*\*s wife? Me, I’d pick the final year of Marilyn Monroe’s life. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/12 "2019-12-16T22:09:36Z")
Perhaps that cop who asked ‘do you know why I pulled you over?’ and give them the real reason, that they just bet their partner Patty O’brian that you would give out more tickets they they did today so you decided to pick on my because you don’t like yellow cars. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/13 "2019-12-16T22:15:56Z")
Warren Buffet in his heyday. I’d be rich. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/14 "2019-12-16T22:18:46Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Why the fascination with \*\*TriPolar’\*\*s wife? It’s like the SDMB’s version of Reddit’s “[I also choose…](https://i.redd.it/6hjx1pzu43o11.jpg)” ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/15 "2019-12-16T23:09:41Z")
Anybody who I’d be curious about I already know what they’re thinking. Pass. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/16 "2019-12-16T23:30:24Z")
I’d tell the genie no thanks and that I have no interest in it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/17 "2019-12-17T02:01:45Z")
QEII I bet she knows lots of interesting goss ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/18 "2019-12-17T02:12:01Z")
My sister’s dog. I want to understand, from his perspective, what is so damn fascinating about smelly shoes. I could understand if if he just chewed them. But,…no, that’s not him. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/19 "2019-12-17T02:30:53Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Blackjack dealer at the local casino. This wouldn’t help at all as the dealer does not look at his hidden card until all players have finished. Much better would to be able to read the mind of someone in poker. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941/20 "2019-12-17T11:47:04Z")
The trouble here is that all of the anti-heroes are far too twisted and pathological. You might gain financially or politically, but a year in their minds would leave you forever changed - and not for the better. Our heroes, on the other hand, are nowhere near as perfect as we imagine them to be. People almost always lead lives that have flaws. I have quite enough of my own, Thank You Very Much. I don’t need to spend time wallowing around in the flaws of other people. I’m not a psychiatrist. It would be instructive to better understand the _motivations_ of other people from time to time. I’ve been close enough to the business world to have been in the meetings wherein a decision is reached for reason A, then months later, rolled out as though it had been made for reason B… because reason B is more politically palatable. I hate that crap. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-read-one-persons-mind-who-would-you-pick-or-not-pick/844941.md?page=2)