From The Storyteller
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PoD
What do 193, 7643, 108k, 2.3m, 8.5m, 22.7m, and 37m all have in common? First clue: Navasota (my hometown) has a population of 7643 and is bigger than Anderson, our county seat, whose population is 193. Conroe, the county seat of our neighboring county Montgomery, is bigger than Navasota with a population of 108k. Second clue: 34 miles south of Conroe is Houston, with a population of 2.3m. Obviously Houston is a lot bigger than Conroe. Houston is the biggest city in Texas, and New York, the largest city in the U.S., is almost four times bigger than Houston with a population of 8.5m. Third Clue: Mexico City, with a population of 22.7m is over 2.5 times bigger than New York and it doesn’t even make the top 5 of the world’s largest cities, with Tokyo being the biggest, with a population of 37m. By now, if your mind works like mine, after reading my three paragraphs, your brain is telling you the answer to my question is “They are all populations of cities”, and you, like me, would be wrong. The correct answer is simply - they are all numbers. When I ran across this test in a travel magazine years ago. I smiled at how easily the Psychology of Distraction works. With the correct answer staring at me in the face, I read a few lines (with different city names) and quickly knew the “wrong” answer. This Travel Mag test reminded me of how I missed “What color was George Washington’s white horse?” back in the 3rd grade. Naturally this leads me to smile and take comfort in the fact that while things, like my weight and bank account balance may go up and down, my flaws and limitations never change. Moral: It’s good to know that some things in life can be counted on. |