Sighthound Studio

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Intersecting Value Systems

Imagine five apples.
You are asked to choose one.
You are told they all taste exactly the same.
But your choice will be judged on criteria unknown to you.
You are allowed to not play.

Analytical thinking is emotionless and structured. Analytical thinkers are good at categorizing. An analytical thinker will put the apples in categories by size, shape, color, surface defects, presence or absence of stem, etc. But they will have to predict the judge's value of these categories which they don't know.

An emotional thinker will know which apple makes them feel the best. Maybe one apple reminds them of a story in their favorite children's book. Or maybe one looks like the apples their parent's tree used to bear. But the judge's value is yet unknown.

There are two value systems at play in this game. One is the value system of you, the participant. The other is the value system of the judge. Even if the judge's value system is unknown, it is still important to the choice.

Success is when the your value system intersects with that of the judge. But success is also when your value system comes close enough when no one else tried.