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Better Thinking Through Magic | Oliver Meech | TEDxYouth@Manchester


hello there we go interactive so we’re
gonna start with something I’d like to
try something with everyone’s minds okay
watching this online you can join too so
first off I’d like you all to think of
an instrument from an orchestra now and
hello hello hello No yes there we go
wonderful alright so if you’re still
standing yes if you’re still signing I’d
like you to imagine I am holding a
single flower okay imagine what kind of
flower I’m holding now and if you’re
thinking of a rose sit down okay
if you’re still standing Oh can I have a
spare mic stand as well cuz I will leave
my fans versus a mean person purposes
Vegas okay if you’re still standing I
want you to think of an animal that you
might have as a pet thank you okay think
of that now and if you’re thinking of a
cat or a dog sit down okay or a fish
there we go or a hamster hamster love us
or a snake or a snake eating a hamster
no good okay if you’re still standing
well we got some good numbers here we’re
still standing not many left I’d like
you to think of a playing card now any
playing card from a deck of cards now
and if you’re thinking of the ace of
spades sit down please
okay or the Joker no very very straight
okay if you’re still standing we’re
gonna pick someone I am let’s try let’s
try the lady there hello what’s your
name hello grace keep keep keep the card
in mind the rest of you can sit down
grace oh you’re not thinking of the ace
of spades no okay so before you reveal
your card before my talk I reversed one
card in this pack which we’ll come to
but for now could you tell everyone in
loud clear voice what was your card
the ten of Hearts thank you very much
grace one card in the middle is reversed
it’s the only card reversed grace it was
ten ten of ten of Hearts thank you
[Applause]
okay so we can be talking about magic
and a lot of magic is actually really
based on psychology because we think
that we see with our eyes but really we
see with our brains and our brains can
be fooled so I’m going to show you an
example here okay I’m going to stand to
the side so you can see it okay here
we’ve got a picture of a strange-looking
flower I want you to stare at the center
of that image okay I’m gonna come over
here so you can see it stare at the
center of that image and in about 30
seconds I’m gonna flick to another image
but I just want you to keep staring and
keep staring at that central point when
I flick to the other so keep staring and
we’ll go for ten nine eight seven six
keep staring five four three two one
there now did we see you around like a
hint of color and then like an old
photograph the color fades away so even
color yes whoa we’re feeling it now here
we go amazing so you’ve got color after
effect that’s only really happening in
your mind amazing and interesting you
can kind of flip back and forth and
sometimes you get a little hint of it
yeah okay so we’ll come to this next bit
so as magicians we have to think in
quite unusual ways to try to amaze
people and so I’ll show you an example
in this talk I’m gonna show you five
ways you can think a little bit
differently based on magic and we’ll
so it’s a silly trick it’s the kind of
thing I show my kids but it’s a serious
point so this is based on directing
attention and a misdirection a word you
often hear with magic
although misdirection is quite
misleading because it’s not really about
directing people’s attention away from
something saying don’t look here because
that will be the first place you look
instead it’s about directing people
towards something more interesting okay
and so this is our first rule which is
direct attention so some psych
yes they think that attention is like a
spotlight so it’s something you kind of
point out and people move it around but
you can only point at one thing at any
one time but don’t assume that people
know where to point in their spotlight
so especially if you’re doing a talk
think about when you want people to look
at you and when you want them to look
elsewhere and then direct their
spotlight accordingly so if you’re doing
a talk say this is why if you think you
want to look at you then focus on that
if you want the look at the slide focus
there but keep the other one still and
that way if you’re never dividing
attention you will literally have
people’s undivided attention okay all
right let’s try something else
so I have a prediction here which we’re
going to come to we’re going to talk
about another of my favorite sort of
psychology principles that you use a lot
in magic and before we come to that I
have a card here it’s got sort of five
numbers from one to five on the front
and it’s got five shapes on the back and
let’s try should we try our gentleman
there hello what’s your name hello
Freddy Freddy and all I want you to do
is just name for me a number between one
and five but I kind of shift the people
it down to okay now Freddy I’ll give you
a choice I don’t want you to be you know
stressed afterwards so do you want to
stick with two or do you want to change
your choice change okay what would you
like for okay all right now do you want
to stick with four or do you want to
change your mind
good okay because I’ve only got 40
minutes all right so okay so on the back
we have the shape so can you see this
we’ve got a circle wavy lines across a
circle but you chose a can you see that
what is it a star okay thank you so your
shape is a star so if your shape was on
the next slide it would be pretty good
yeah okay we’ll check it out people your
shape all right all right thank you for
that pity clap a couple of you all right
would have been better if it was a star
all right and so this brings us on to a
principle that’s essential for magic
which is theory of mind because anytime
you see a magic trick
it’s actually really – there’s the trick
you’re experiencing and then there’s the
trick the magicians experiencing okay
and understanding that different people
have different realities is known as
theory of mind now this isn’t something
we’re born with this is kind of
something that we develop when we’re
little kids and if people are slow to
develop it it can be an early indicator
of things like autism so it’s important
tonight but how do you test little kids
for theory of mind well psychologists
have come up with many different methods
but I’d like to show you my favorite now
which is called the Smarties test there
we go by pen rental and it’s based on
those the the yummy little chocolatey
goodness that a Smarties so I want you
to imagine a parent goes into a lap with
their child okay in this case there may
be at that then the parent leaves the
lap goes into another room out of sight
next the experimenter comes and holds up
a tube of Smarties and set to the
Charles what do you think is inside the
Smarties and naturally the child says
Smarties then they open the tube and
they were inside is actually a pencil
the child looks disappointed or grows a
moustache hard to tell ready and and
then they bring the dad back in and then
this is the important question they say
to the child if your dad was asked
what’s inside the tube what would he say
so obviously if the kid has developed
theory of mine they say Smarties because
the child realizes the dad wasn’t around
to see the pencil but if they haven’t
developed it yet they say the pencil
because they can’t separate their
reality from someone else so this is
this is a really useful thing not only
in magic but it’s something that you can
imply in your own lives because so often
in life you know we get we into
ourselves we get really self obsessed
kind of like a camera stuck on selfie
view but if we can flip our view we can
get out of our own minds and hop into
someone else’s so in practice say if
you’re if you’re applying for a job then
don’t just list your skills out that’s
that’s your view but if you flip your
view you want to link your views to what
they can do for the company’s challenges
okay you’re flipping your view or if
you’re giving a talk don’t just think
about all the things you could possibly
say think about what people watching
might want to hear okay so next one
let’s see their reality which we’ve been
talking about next stand out okay so if
you want to be remembered or noticed in
life sometimes it really does help to
stand out at least a little bit but
obviously this is glib to say that but
how do you do that in practice well one
really easy easy simple way you can do
it is to just be different from your
background and I’ll show you what you
mean with with a couple of illusions
here so this is the classic everything
house illusion and you can see the left
hand orange circle looks a little bit
smaller than the one on the right but if
we remove the surroundings we see
they’re actually the same size there’s
another one so we’ve got it looks like
we’ve got two gradients here we’ve got
the surrounding gradient and then we’ve
got the gradient in the middle but again
if we remove the surroundings we see
it’s in the same shape okay so in life
think about what the surroundings are
and then try to stand out because with
our psychology almost everything is sort
of relative to our surroundings so for
instance this is very true in terms of
people sort of in still life or people
piano curating their lives trying to get
this perfect lives online because if you
only follow and compare yourself to
people who are richer or prettier or
more successful than you then you’re
obviously feel miserable so I think
there are two solutions to this so the
first one is that you can only follow
people who are ugly and rubbish thing
but that’s the wrong solution the right
solution is to realize that you know we
are all different and unique in our own
ways and that should be good enough okay
oh and I should just mention I’m
standing out is also what helped me and
get into Oxford University when I was
younger because against much advice I
mentioned magic on my application form
and it caught the interviewers attention
so try standing out just a little bit
and see where it takes you in life okay
next rule assume it’s possible assume
it’s possible so I want you to imagine
I feel like Mick Jagger carrying the mic
like this but there we go I want you to
imagine that thing
are possible until proven otherwise so
as a magician it’s our job kind of
everyday to do the impossible and that
really kind of changes how you think
about things because it’s easy if you’re
coming up with something impossible so
say if I wanted to float a ball but I
wanted to do it without any wires
without any magnets without any slights
and without any CGI so you can you can
either start off and go well obviously
that’s impossible and if you do then
naturally you’ll come up with reasons to
confirm why it probably isn’t possible
or you can say if it was possible how
could you do it and then if you’re still
stuck you can list out what makes it
impossible and then just find a way
round each one and most of the time you
can find some way to do it so I’d like
to show you the solution here we go
floaty ball no wires no Mack mix no CGI
just to show you there we go
floaty floaty and here’s the method in
case you’re wondering Shazam
it is devilry okay so obviously it’s a
ridiculous method I invented it so I
wouldn’t be revealing real secret but
it’s a good example of how if you keep
thinking I mean assume it’s possible
then you can find a way and do apply
that in everyday life because you’ll
find often you know in so many parts of
life whenever you come up with an idea
especially if it hasn’t been done before
there’ll be a raft of people telling you
that it can’t be done or reasons listing
why it isn’t possible but if you assume
it is until proven otherwise and stick
with it often you’ll find it is okay
let’s try this all right this is coming
on to my my final one and this isn’t
really strictly a magic thing but this
is something that I always found myself
doing when coming up with my own magic
tricks and it’s something you can try
too it’s really simple but it’s really
useful and I call it leap far first so
if you imagine normally when people try
and come up with something new or an
original idea they start where they
currently are and then they take kind of
little steps and they edge their way out
from there and they try and kind of itch
their way into somewhere new and it
makes sense but it’s tricky because
as you’re doing that where you start off
is where everyone else is so the
possibility space to borrow a phrase for
a mass it’s kind of crammed with loads
of other people’s idea ever seen you
have to kind of navigate your way
through it’s kind of like trying to get
your way through there it’s too much in
the way but instead if you’d leap far
first like this then you end up in a
beautifully clear impossibility space
with fewer ideas so you’re free to
explore you don’t have to worry about
other people’s ideas and whatever you do
come up with will be much more likely to
be original so give it a try it’s really
simple so for instance if you were
coming up with say yet another
production of Romeo and Juliet okay it’s
been done it’s been done – they’re part
of the fresh so what do you do you can
try you know tweak little bits here and
there or you can leap far first and say
okay we’re going to do the whole
production is a one-person production or
maybe you and build Juliet the world’s
largest balcony and she kind of shouts
down from there with a megaphone so leap
far first and you’ll normally end up
somewhere interesting sooner okay so to
finish off I’m going to show you my
favorite trick that I’ve invented and
this kind of combines all the different
principles that we’ve been talking about
so just to recap first we’ve got direct
their attention see their reality flip
your view spam out assume it’s possible
and leap far first okay so we’re gonna
try something with all of those and this
doesn’t really use the kind of classic
standard magic tricks of you know like
cups and balls and playing cards and
things like this this uses something
else this use it’s one of my other
favorite subjects food so I’ve invented
the ultimate snack machine here Pete and
pinic but first we need some snacks now
because time was tight before the talks
got going I asked about kind of 50
people or so to write different snacks
down on the card so keep your hands up
if you’ve got if you were some of the
people that yes thank you there yes okay
go a nice sprinkling and then I had
someone click them in and you’ve been
looking after them thank you round of
okay and for this we also need someone
who really appreciates food okay
not a glutton just a connoisseur so well
I sing to the audience really someone
who can eat everything let’s have a look
let’s try let’s I can say lady in a kind
of bright top there and what’s your name
Adam mrs. Smith there we go formal to
the end excellent alright mrs. Smith
I’ll call myself mr. Meacher mrs. Smith
it’s a good film mrs. mrs. Smith do you
have any food allergies
no I Kate you have a first name I can
call you just for this Claire there we
go alright call we have to okay Claire
and then you’ll be perfect please come
and join me give it up for Claire ladies
and gentlemen all right you can go on
that side for me please alright so
Claire here we have our snack machine
okay but first like I say we need some
snacks so I’d like you to reach out with
me if you can
just reach over and lift off a chunk of
cards like that and then pause there
okay all right the magic escapes
sometimes it’s the powers okay it’s good
okay so do you want to stick with us you
can drop a couple off pick a couple more
up wherever you want to do your okay all
right come in a bit okay place in here
hold out your free hand perfect we’ll go
for one two let’s try three okay now
obviously if you had changed your mind
we would have ended up with some other
snacks so we’re just so some of the
other ones you can see that we might
have had today
so flapjacks crisps mmm healthy that’s
crisps again and chocolate and so on
okay but we ended up with those so in a
moment I would like you to turn over the
top one read out what it says and
hopefully whatever she says
we shall produce okay yeah yeah go for
it
KitKat okay Kit Kat Kit Kat a pot hold
out your other hand does that look like
a chunk of Kit Kat does it taste like
Kit Kat yes one now okay what’s our next
one here we go what’s our next one
salt and vinegar crisps okay okay salt
and vinegar crisps another pot how do
you hand again do they look like crisps
so I know your mouth oh yeah
and what’s the third one let’s finish
this off I’m gonna steal hope it’s a
drink ask me
let’s see cornflakes how brilliantly
students eat um all right let’s give it
a go why not all right
and cornflakes did you want it why not
you want it with or without milk with
okay it’s kinda like a drink maybe all
right okay cornflakes with milk two pots
wait wait wait hold that hold that
okay in a moment I want you to have a
taste and if it is cornflakes with milk
and that pot wasn’t on the card the meal
Pete you decide about it now yes if it
is conflict with milk since your mouth
will be full I want you to punch the air
like Rocky Balboa vast signifying the
end of the talk you will return to your
seat I will bow they will applaud
hopefully he’ll be beautiful don’t let
I’ve been over meet you guys a truck forget
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