Today I came a cross one primary school math problem: Select one number that is different from other numbers: 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10.
The “correct answer” is 9, the only odd number.
Is that so obvious?
2 is the only prime number.
4 is the only number that fits x^x=x•x=x+x
6 is the only perfect number.
8 is the only cubic number.
9 is the only right answer to this question.
10 is the only number in two digits, and the only binary number.
This question is like the story of my life – constantly struggling to understand what something means, drawing decision trees with so many branches but cannot determine the “right” one. Eventually I compensate by learning about what neurotypical people are like, building models about how they think, and then use the models to deduce their reactions.
One thing I find is that neurotypical people (who don’t seem to have theory of mind problems) are not necessarily good at reading or predicting other people. It just so happens that their natural “cloud” of reactions are all within the roughly same reaction pool among neurotypical people, so that they are “functional”. I have reactions that are far away from the neurotypical pool, and I can get lost in my decision tree branches, which makes me stuck at minute detail that barely exists for some people*. This is a crucial insight because it shows that cognitive ability is independent of functionality. And functionality is highly dependent of (shared) context.
*Here is something I am still working on: when I walk into the gym and then walk pass Cyrus, he would say, “Hi Chen! How are you?” I usually walk pretty fast and only have time to say “hi” or waive for once. Each time I end up waving at him or say hi. It feels unfinished. I wanted but kept forgetting to ask Cyrus, why he would say so many things when someone is clearly walking fast, and how he feels when I don’t answer him and ask how he is doing. I am sure Cyrus don’t have a problem on this with me. Still it is a glitch.
I initially saw this problem from a Chinese social media. I wrote about my frustration on not understanding the question in life, a lot of people resonated with it. I also received some other candidates for the answer which also fit the poorly defined question:
2is the only number that only have open space.
4 is the only number with only straight lines.
8 is the only axisymmetric number.
But I will end this post with the bright side. Just listen to this talk given by Peter Thiel.
Scopiology 