You're a horrible listener
And that's pretty tough to fix
Is it just me or does this week feel abnormally long? Trying out a special brain teaser today, let me know what you think:
A plague ravaged the UK and Germany soon after World War II. Cemeteries were full. Once the sick had been treated, where did the British and German chaplains decide the survivors should be buried?
Answer, as usual, at end.
Special thanks to Decât O Revistă’s Concentrat newsletter (if you speak Romanian, you should check them out) for featuring our little daily lateral thinking exercises yesterday.
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Listen here, punk.
But the reality is that we don’t listen.
In the rare cases when we do, we don’t listen to understand, we listen to reply.
Yes, that’s a famous quote, Stephen Covey said it.
Back to the topic at hand - we rarely listen with intent.
We listen to prove something to us or to the other person. We want to seem smart, caring or attentive.
A lot of the time, it’s more about us than the other person. Because shutting up takes more strength than replying.
There’s a caveat to this. I know people who listen to understand just to brag that they understand the other person.
That’s just as bad, if not worse.
The next time you’re talking to someone, try to stop thinking of yourself and genuinely try to understand where the other person is coming from.
Stop asking loaded questions. Stop trying to lead your conversation partner to an answer.
You might find yourself seeing perspectives that were totally closed to you.
Because it’s hard to be creative when you’re self centered.
Answer: You don’t bury survivors, silly, that’s a war crime!
This is less of a riddle and more of an attention test (it became fairly popular in recent years), although it works better verbally, since there’s more external stimuli to prevent you from properly listening.
If you got it right, congrats! You were listening.