[Applause]
imagine if you could take your brain and
then turn it inside out and then have
access to the information to be able to
solve virtually any problem it sounds
pretty cool right well here’s how we’re
gonna take a look at problem solving in
a very different way one that can bring
tremendous benefit to your life and this
is a technique I was first introduced to
at the age of 12 when I began studying
the art form of magic and I’ve continued
to develop it throughout my professional
career and now best of all this will be
able to work for you
in your personal life professional or to
help you create that next billion-dollar
idea and in any field sales marketing
show business it doesn’t matter now
throughout this talk I’m gonna be
revealing to you three core
psychological principles that magicians
have been using for more than 5000 years
and all of these principles have one
thing in common they all revolve around
the most important concept in magic and
that is the answer to every problem is
hiding in plain sight so let me explain
imagine you’re seated at a table and
you’re given a problem to solve using
nothing except for these items a candle
some pushpins and some matches now
you’ve got 60 seconds to figure out how
to attach this candle to the wall in a
way that when it’s lit the wax will not
drip down onto the table okay so some of
you may be familiar with this but for
the rest of you will you try to figure
this out let me give you a little bit of
history of where this came from
now this is a classic test of creative
problem-solving developed but the
renowned psychologist dr. Karl Duncker
and it was first published in 1945 but
although this is over three-quarters of
a century old
dr. dunkers assessment of our cognitive
brain solves problems hasn’t Lee changed
at all again it’s back to what I said
earlier the
answer to every problem is hiding in
plain sight you see the thing is we look
right at the answer but we rarely see it
and in this case most people are so
consumed with how to attach the candle
to the wall using tacks
well the real answer is right in front
of them you guys see it the box again
that’s what I mean by the answer is
hidden in plain sight and again the
reason we don’t think the box is one of
the solutions is because not presented
to us as such it’s locked away in our
brain and position simply as a container
for the pins now dr. dunker called this
functional fixedness the cognitive bias
that limits a person to using an object
only in the way that is traditionally
intended and the same is also true of
ideas and concepts for example this
candlestick problem was presented to you
simply as a creative problem-solving
test when in fact it also had a
secondary purpose it contained a very
important clue one that was hiding in
plain sight which you will need to
unlock another facet of your cognitive
problem-solving ability now the thing is
you probably didn’t notice because you
weren’t instructed to look for it so
right now I’m giving you a heads up
there’s going to be one more clue hidden
during this talk so pay close attention
to every detail now to make all this a
lot easier to understand I’ve simplified
the process into three words the first
word is misconceptions most people think
a difficult problem must have a complex
solution the second word assumptions we
utilize information based upon prior
knowledge and experience we don’t think
beyond those parameters and the third
word is expectations the answer we
expect to find often limits us and does
not allow us to see what’s really going
on
now I thought it’d be kind of fun to
show you what all three of these words
look like in action and then we’ll dive
into each one in a little bit more
detail so for this here got a few bills
two three four I think five dollars here
so here’s the goal the goal is be able
to take these bills
if I can do this properly we’ll actually
be able to take them on the count of
three we go one two it’s real like that
unless you transform into five hundred
dollars okay now I have to say this I
can’t promise you’ll actually be able to
transform money at your fingertips by
the end of this talk but you will be
able to utilize these same principles
the same principles I just use to turn
$1 bills into hundred-dollar bills to
solve virtually any problem all right so
let’s break this whole thing down right
now
starting with misconceptions this the
exact same thing that happens with the
candlestick problem you see most people
are so focused on how to attach the
candlestick they can’t figure out
exactly what’s going on with the box it
gets buried in their brains and what
happens you have to force your brain to
reassess everything about the situation
every detail to bring the information to
the surface and then be able to expand
your ability to utilize cognitive
thinking so I’ve got another little
business this is so fun I can’t wait to
show you this so this here is a little
thing so guys take a look right over
here we’ve got a couple cards six cards
to be exact each card is different and
each card has been selected for a very
important psychological reason you’ll
find out why in just a moment so right
now I want you to focus on just one card
and remember it keep repeating the name
of your card over and over and over in
your mind you got it great I’m gonna
turn the cards over start mixing them up
now if I did this correctly all of you
yes all of you will have been influenced
to choose the exact same card and I’m
going to remove your card right now
let’s see if it worked
so it’s pretty crazy right so okay so
how does this happen like I said there
is a psychological reason why these
cards were selected but it is not so
that all of you would be drawn to the
same card it’s so that all of you would
focus on only one card and ignore the
rest and that’s where the misconception
comes in because what you don’t know is
that there’s actually two separate sets
of cards again the answer was hiding in
plain sight and the reason you didn’t
notice is because both sets of cards are
actually very similar so let’s say for
instance in the first spread you
selected the king of clubs in the second
spread it was replaced by the king of
spades so no matter what card you chose
in the first fret is not gonna show up
in the second spread and to top it all
off you were so focused on your one card
you didn’t even notice any of the other
cards around it this is why
misconception is so dangerous and it
often makes problem-solving take way
longer than it really should all right
now the next idea we’re gonna tackle is
assumptions and more importantly false
assumptions so why don’t you take a look
at this animation right now and tell me
which way is the key rotating now some
of you will assume the key is rotating
clockwise others will assume the keys
rotating counterclockwise and both of
those assumptions are wrong you see we
assumed the key is moving in just one
direction or the other but I can assure
you it’s not now if you’re more of a
right brained user you would like to see
the key rotating to the right if you’re
more of a left brained user you’ll
likely see the key rotating to the left
but by switching your thinking from
right brain to left brain you’ll be able
to shift the direction of the key now
this takes a little bit of practice but
the results are almost magical so how
does this relate to hiding in plain
sight well in this situation our brain
thinks and assumes that there’s only one
of two possible answers the only two it
readily knows and accepts the key can
rotate right
or the key can rotate left it’s
inconceivable the key can be rotating in
both directions at the same time but you
see if we really study the image we
realize we don’t have enough information
to determine the keys direction at all
to see the key is solid black
there’s no highlights shadows or any
other distinguishing marks to give us
the appropriate information
now our brain fills in these missing
pieces and we assume because it might
like to work in an orderly fashion that
what we see is the key rotating in one
direction or the other which doesn’t
even occur to us that maybe we’re
missing the relevant information to make
an informed decision and we assume that
what our mind tells us based on the way
that it chooses to function at that
moment that our logic is correct so the
correct answer to this one is simply
hiding in plain sight depending on your
perception the key rotates in both
directions now there’s still one more
crucial word we need to explore and that
is expectations the answer we expect to
find can blind us to what is actually
happening and this is what makes
problem-solving so difficult now a great
example of this is when I was asked to
be on the TV show America’s Got Talent
there was just one problem at the time
the producers of the show expected
magicians to perform big flashy Vegas
type illusions which I didn’t do now the
reason that America’s Got telling one of
these types of Acts was because show was
being taped in front of 6,000 people at
Radio City Music Hall and they wanted
this show to feel huge but I noticed
that none of the magicians ever made it
past the first few rounds so I started
analyzing why I mean they’re actually
great in front of 6,000 people in the
audience but to the millions of people
who are watching on TV at home and then
voting there was a disconnect between
the performer again I analyzed why well
television is really an intimate medium
and the best kind of magic for
television is close-up magic as it too
is intimate it draws the viewer in so
armed with this new insight I realized
the answer was right in front of me it
was literally hiding in plain sight I
didn’t need to perform big flashy Vegas
type illusions I need
new small close-up intimate performances
that would blow the minds of the judges
and the people watching at home now I
took a bit of convincing to get the
producers to agree to this whole thing
they definitely did not see it the way
that I did at that time but once I was
able to refocus their attention back to
what they already knew which is that
television is intimate therefore the
magic actually be intimate as well they
said okay let’s do it
it was a paradigm shifting away from
magic to be done on America’s Got Talent
and I actually became the first magician
to ever make it into the finals on that
show thank you now it all happened
because I was able to shift the
producers expectations of what they
thought would work so right now it’s
time for me to shift yours as I
mentioned earlier throughout this entire
talk I’ve given you two clues to the
problems I’m about to show you right now
now you may or may not have noticed them
and if you didn’t here’s a little hint
if you go back and watch this again
you’ll notice that every time I touch my
key say the answer is hiding in plain
sight I would point to the clue that you
will need to quickly solve these next
few problems now there’s a chance you
probably just didn’t even notice that
that you perceive the touch gets lucky
just an irrelevant gesture you didn’t
expect such a simple action could
contain the answer to what you perceived
as a much more complicated problem so
here are the challenges the first one
how do you drink champagne from the
bottle without opening it immediately
your mom will start thinking of all
these different solutions most of which
probably have to do with a complicated
way of getting the cork off and getting
the champagne out without actually
opening up the bottle keep thinking the
next one here involves two glasses
a dollar bill suspended between them and
a salt shaker and the challenge is to
get the salt shaker to balance on top of
the dollar bill while staying suspended
so when you let go it won’t drop down to
the table again the answer is probably a
lot easier than you think
also again if you want to learn these
all you gotta do is just watch this
again and look for the times when I
touch my key point and say the answer is
hiding in plain sight now this here is
actually what people consider a bar bet
so if you’re familiar with magic and
puzzles
you probably recognize it and it uses
the exact same principles that magicians
have been using all along if you had a
bit of difficulty like figuring it out
don’t worry because it’s actually much
easier to fool a really intelligent
person than someone who maybe isn’t
quite as sophisticated I got you I got
you but it’s really true it’s actually
very difficult to fool children and I’ll
explain why for a really sophisticated
person you will almost always talk
yourself out of the simple solution even
though it’s the right solution your
misconception will cause you to overlook
the obvious now this also has you call
create a false set of assumptions for
example a child will see a lady floating
in the air and say yeah well there are
strings holding her up a more
sophisticated person would say but see
that I can’t see any strings plus it
would take a lot of strings to support
the weight of a person the utilize
information based upon prior knowledge
and experience and they don’t go beyond
those parameters and finally they create
a false set of expectations because a
magician passed a hoop around the lady
they allow this one simple action to
blind them from the truth it’s the
perfect example of misconceptions
assumptions and expectations all working
against you all stopping you from
achieving your goal but once you master
these principles you will be able to
unleash the answers and realize the
benefits that are always hiding in plain
sight thank you thank you all so much
[Applause]
[Music]
imagine if you could take your brain and
then turn it inside out and then have
access to the information to be able to
solve virtually any problem it sounds
pretty cool right well here’s how we’re
gonna take a look at problem solving in
a very different way one that can bring
tremendous benefit to your life and this
is a technique I was first introduced to
at the age of 12 when I began studying
the art form of magic and I’ve continued
to develop it throughout my professional
career and now best of all this will be
able to work for you
in your personal life professional or to
help you create that next billion-dollar
idea and in any field sales marketing
show business it doesn’t matter now
throughout this talk I’m gonna be
revealing to you three core
psychological principles that magicians
have been using for more than 5000 years
and all of these principles have one
thing in common they all revolve around
the most important concept in magic and
that is the answer to every problem is
hiding in plain sight so let me explain
imagine you’re seated at a table and
you’re given a problem to solve using
nothing except for these items a candle
some pushpins and some matches now
you’ve got 60 seconds to figure out how
to attach this candle to the wall in a
way that when it’s lit the wax will not
drip down onto the table okay so some of
you may be familiar with this but for
the rest of you will you try to figure
this out let me give you a little bit of
history of where this came from
now this is a classic test of creative
problem-solving developed but the
renowned psychologist dr. Karl Duncker
and it was first published in 1945 but
although this is over three-quarters of
a century old
dr. dunkers assessment of our cognitive
brain solves problems hasn’t Lee changed
at all again it’s back to what I said
earlier the
answer to every problem is hiding in
plain sight you see the thing is we look
right at the answer but we rarely see it
and in this case most people are so
consumed with how to attach the candle
to the wall using tacks
well the real answer is right in front
of them you guys see it the box again
that’s what I mean by the answer is
hidden in plain sight and again the
reason we don’t think the box is one of
the solutions is because not presented
to us as such it’s locked away in our
brain and position simply as a container
for the pins now dr. dunker called this
functional fixedness the cognitive bias
that limits a person to using an object
only in the way that is traditionally
intended and the same is also true of
ideas and concepts for example this
candlestick problem was presented to you
simply as a creative problem-solving
test when in fact it also had a
secondary purpose it contained a very
important clue one that was hiding in
plain sight which you will need to
unlock another facet of your cognitive
problem-solving ability now the thing is
you probably didn’t notice because you
weren’t instructed to look for it so
right now I’m giving you a heads up
there’s going to be one more clue hidden
during this talk so pay close attention
to every detail now to make all this a
lot easier to understand I’ve simplified
the process into three words the first
word is misconceptions most people think
a difficult problem must have a complex
solution the second word assumptions we
utilize information based upon prior
knowledge and experience we don’t think
beyond those parameters and the third
word is expectations the answer we
expect to find often limits us and does
not allow us to see what’s really going
on
now I thought it’d be kind of fun to
show you what all three of these words
look like in action and then we’ll dive
into each one in a little bit more
detail so for this here got a few bills
two three four I think five dollars here
so here’s the goal the goal is be able
to take these bills
if I can do this properly we’ll actually
be able to take them on the count of
three we go one two it’s real like that
unless you transform into five hundred
dollars okay now I have to say this I
can’t promise you’ll actually be able to
transform money at your fingertips by
the end of this talk but you will be
able to utilize these same principles
the same principles I just use to turn
$1 bills into hundred-dollar bills to
solve virtually any problem all right so
let’s break this whole thing down right
now
starting with misconceptions this the
exact same thing that happens with the
candlestick problem you see most people
are so focused on how to attach the
candlestick they can’t figure out
exactly what’s going on with the box it
gets buried in their brains and what
happens you have to force your brain to
reassess everything about the situation
every detail to bring the information to
the surface and then be able to expand
your ability to utilize cognitive
thinking so I’ve got another little
business this is so fun I can’t wait to
show you this so this here is a little
thing so guys take a look right over
here we’ve got a couple cards six cards
to be exact each card is different and
each card has been selected for a very
important psychological reason you’ll
find out why in just a moment so right
now I want you to focus on just one card
and remember it keep repeating the name
of your card over and over and over in
your mind you got it great I’m gonna
turn the cards over start mixing them up
now if I did this correctly all of you
yes all of you will have been influenced
to choose the exact same card and I’m
going to remove your card right now
let’s see if it worked
so it’s pretty crazy right so okay so
how does this happen like I said there
is a psychological reason why these
cards were selected but it is not so
that all of you would be drawn to the
same card it’s so that all of you would
focus on only one card and ignore the
rest and that’s where the misconception
comes in because what you don’t know is
that there’s actually two separate sets
of cards again the answer was hiding in
plain sight and the reason you didn’t
notice is because both sets of cards are
actually very similar so let’s say for
instance in the first spread you
selected the king of clubs in the second
spread it was replaced by the king of
spades so no matter what card you chose
in the first fret is not gonna show up
in the second spread and to top it all
off you were so focused on your one card
you didn’t even notice any of the other
cards around it this is why
misconception is so dangerous and it
often makes problem-solving take way
longer than it really should all right
now the next idea we’re gonna tackle is
assumptions and more importantly false
assumptions so why don’t you take a look
at this animation right now and tell me
which way is the key rotating now some
of you will assume the key is rotating
clockwise others will assume the keys
rotating counterclockwise and both of
those assumptions are wrong you see we
assumed the key is moving in just one
direction or the other but I can assure
you it’s not now if you’re more of a
right brained user you would like to see
the key rotating to the right if you’re
more of a left brained user you’ll
likely see the key rotating to the left
but by switching your thinking from
right brain to left brain you’ll be able
to shift the direction of the key now
this takes a little bit of practice but
the results are almost magical so how
does this relate to hiding in plain
sight well in this situation our brain
thinks and assumes that there’s only one
of two possible answers the only two it
readily knows and accepts the key can
rotate right
or the key can rotate left it’s
inconceivable the key can be rotating in
both directions at the same time but you
see if we really study the image we
realize we don’t have enough information
to determine the keys direction at all
to see the key is solid black
there’s no highlights shadows or any
other distinguishing marks to give us
the appropriate information
now our brain fills in these missing
pieces and we assume because it might
like to work in an orderly fashion that
what we see is the key rotating in one
direction or the other which doesn’t
even occur to us that maybe we’re
missing the relevant information to make
an informed decision and we assume that
what our mind tells us based on the way
that it chooses to function at that
moment that our logic is correct so the
correct answer to this one is simply
hiding in plain sight depending on your
perception the key rotates in both
directions now there’s still one more
crucial word we need to explore and that
is expectations the answer we expect to
find can blind us to what is actually
happening and this is what makes
problem-solving so difficult now a great
example of this is when I was asked to
be on the TV show America’s Got Talent
there was just one problem at the time
the producers of the show expected
magicians to perform big flashy Vegas
type illusions which I didn’t do now the
reason that America’s Got telling one of
these types of Acts was because show was
being taped in front of 6,000 people at
Radio City Music Hall and they wanted
this show to feel huge but I noticed
that none of the magicians ever made it
past the first few rounds so I started
analyzing why I mean they’re actually
great in front of 6,000 people in the
audience but to the millions of people
who are watching on TV at home and then
voting there was a disconnect between
the performer again I analyzed why well
television is really an intimate medium
and the best kind of magic for
television is close-up magic as it too
is intimate it draws the viewer in so
armed with this new insight I realized
the answer was right in front of me it
was literally hiding in plain sight I
didn’t need to perform big flashy Vegas
type illusions I need
new small close-up intimate performances
that would blow the minds of the judges
and the people watching at home now I
took a bit of convincing to get the
producers to agree to this whole thing
they definitely did not see it the way
that I did at that time but once I was
able to refocus their attention back to
what they already knew which is that
television is intimate therefore the
magic actually be intimate as well they
said okay let’s do it
it was a paradigm shifting away from
magic to be done on America’s Got Talent
and I actually became the first magician
to ever make it into the finals on that
show thank you now it all happened
because I was able to shift the
producers expectations of what they
thought would work so right now it’s
time for me to shift yours as I
mentioned earlier throughout this entire
talk I’ve given you two clues to the
problems I’m about to show you right now
now you may or may not have noticed them
and if you didn’t here’s a little hint
if you go back and watch this again
you’ll notice that every time I touch my
key say the answer is hiding in plain
sight I would point to the clue that you
will need to quickly solve these next
few problems now there’s a chance you
probably just didn’t even notice that
that you perceive the touch gets lucky
just an irrelevant gesture you didn’t
expect such a simple action could
contain the answer to what you perceived
as a much more complicated problem so
here are the challenges the first one
how do you drink champagne from the
bottle without opening it immediately
your mom will start thinking of all
these different solutions most of which
probably have to do with a complicated
way of getting the cork off and getting
the champagne out without actually
opening up the bottle keep thinking the
next one here involves two glasses
a dollar bill suspended between them and
a salt shaker and the challenge is to
get the salt shaker to balance on top of
the dollar bill while staying suspended
so when you let go it won’t drop down to
the table again the answer is probably a
lot easier than you think
also again if you want to learn these
all you gotta do is just watch this
again and look for the times when I
touch my key point and say the answer is
hiding in plain sight now this here is
actually what people consider a bar bet
so if you’re familiar with magic and
puzzles
you probably recognize it and it uses
the exact same principles that magicians
have been using all along if you had a
bit of difficulty like figuring it out
don’t worry because it’s actually much
easier to fool a really intelligent
person than someone who maybe isn’t
quite as sophisticated I got you I got
you but it’s really true it’s actually
very difficult to fool children and I’ll
explain why for a really sophisticated
person you will almost always talk
yourself out of the simple solution even
though it’s the right solution your
misconception will cause you to overlook
the obvious now this also has you call
create a false set of assumptions for
example a child will see a lady floating
in the air and say yeah well there are
strings holding her up a more
sophisticated person would say but see
that I can’t see any strings plus it
would take a lot of strings to support
the weight of a person the utilize
information based upon prior knowledge
and experience and they don’t go beyond
those parameters and finally they create
a false set of expectations because a
magician passed a hoop around the lady
they allow this one simple action to
blind them from the truth it’s the
perfect example of misconceptions
assumptions and expectations all working
against you all stopping you from
achieving your goal but once you master
these principles you will be able to
unleash the answers and realize the
benefits that are always hiding in plain
sight thank you thank you all so much
[Applause]
[Music]
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