If you met yourself, would you like you?
Welcome back from the weekend, hope you had a blast. I found a little lateral thinking situation that I really liked and couldn’t wait to share it here. Disclaimer: I didn’t figure it out either.
Two men want to open a high window in a completely empty room.
One man is big and very tall, the other short.
The short man gets onto the shoulders of the big and taller man, but he is just short of reaching the window catch.
Without leaving the room, or receiving any help or tools, how do they open the window?
One possible answer, as usual, at the end.
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An out of body experience
I’ve done a decent amount of public speaking at various conferences, training or public events.
My “game” has improved a lot in the past decade, as it should have, since I spent quite some time reading on the topic and practicing.
One golden advice I wish I took earlier is to record yourself and watch yourself present. It’s a horrible, but necessary experience.
You’ll generally feel that you look different than the way you see yourself, you’ll notice all the little motor or vocal tics that you have and, of course, you’ll feel you sound different. There’s a fun explanation for the last one.
It’s always hard to observe ourselves from a different perspective.
And it’s why we should do it often.
Try to ask yourselves a couple of questions and objectively answer them based on your behavior with various people:
Would I like to work with someone like me?
Would I enjoy having a beer with myself?
Would I date myself?
Your first instinct might be to say “d’oh, I’m the coolest guy/girl I know” - and kudos on the confidence.
But while for some that might be true, for others this initial reaction might be a way to deflect actually considering your true self.
Most people I know (myself included), when presented with this worldview, shifted their behavior after truly observing themselves from the outside.
Answer: The tall man should stand on the shorter man’s shoulders. This way, they’ll have the advantage of the taller man’s longer arms and reach the window.