Why Everyone in Denver Drives a Jeep | Volume 15

It’s March 16. 1:05pm Mountain Time. The first two March Madness games were decided by a total of three points. My second favorite team – the Missouri Tigers – are playing…

And I’ve already gotten yelled at by my roommate for screaming at the TV too much.

This is March.

Ok ok…for all of you that didn’t come here for college basketball content (everyone)…

Here's what I've been thinking about lately:*

*In addition to "I can't believe it's Princeton vs. Mizzou for the Sweet 16!"

Haven't subscribed? New here? This newsletter, Makes Ya Think, poses questions about human behavior, and hopefully, provides insights that challenge your beliefs, offer a unique perspective and if nothing else...make you think.

Does everyone in Denver really drive a Jeep?

Good question. To me, it certainly seems so.

I’ll explain why in just a second – as well as five other interesting concepts that will help you understand the world better (or at the very least, make you think)!

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Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

I bought a car a couple of months ago.

Yes, somehow I survived living in Denver for nine months without one (ok maybe it was more like 10, but nine sounds better).

Anyways…it wasn’t just any car – it was a white, (somewhat) shiny, 2019 Jeep Compass.

I had never driven one in my life. But when I hopped in and drove it around at the dealership, it just felt right (the heated steering wheel certainly didn’t hurt).

So I bought it.

Since then? Well, something strange has happened.

I see Jeep’s everywhere. Walking down the street. Driving to the store.

Everywhere.

Hell, my neighbor has a white Jeep and somehow, I had never noticed.

Where were all these Jeep’s before?

Turns out, they’ve always been there – I just didn’t see them.

Huh, really?

Yes, really. And you’re probably familiar with this phenomenon – have you ever learned a new word and then started noticing it in books, articles and conversations WAY more frequently than before?

That word didn’t just hit a popularity surge and start appearing places.

Once we learn or notice something new, we become more alert to it.

This is the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: a new awareness of something creates an illusion that it’s appearing more frequently

We constantly notice what is top of mind. It's how our brains work.

Once we become aware of something new, our brains start to prioritize that information, making us more likely to notice it in the future.

Though this phenomenon is fairly harmless, it can play a role in the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Research shows that people are more likely to believe a statement to be true if they have heard it before, regardless of how true the statement actually is.

Therefore, if we encounter a false statement again and again due to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, we are more likely to believe it to be true.

Confusing our attention with reality can be costly.

***

Peter Principle

People in a hierarchy, such as a business, will be promoted until they suck at their job. When this happens, they stay at their current level. The result? The world is filled with people who suck at their jobs.

***

Streetlight Effect

People tend to get their information from where it’s easiest to look. For instance, a majority of people get their research from the sources that are on the first page of a Google search. Cumulatively, this can skew an entire field.

***

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Awareness of the limitations of cognition (thinking) requires proficiency in metacognition (thinking about thinking). In other words, being stupid makes you too stupid to realize how stupid you are.

***

Survivorship Bias

We overemphasize the examples that are known. For example, our understanding of serial killers is only based on the ones that get caught. Similarly, news is news if it is an exception to the rule, but since it’s what we see, we treat it as the rule.

***

The March Madness Special aka The Gambler’s Fallacy

We tend to believe that past events alter future outcomes even when they clearly have no impact.

Just because you picked the first 10 games of the tournament wrong doesn’t mean you’re “due for a win” the next game.

Sorry to break it to ya.

There's always next year.

Ted Lasso is Back! You better BELIEVE it!

Season 3 of Ted Lasso – as I’m sure many are familiar with – released this week (if you aren’t, I’d just skip this section).

Question for the fans out there: the show premiered in 2020, but do you know when the Ted Lasso character was actually created?

You have to go back to 2001 – to a comedy club in Amsterdam.

Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard) lived there at the time while working for an improv comedy club. Over his five years there performing, he fell in love with the history and culture of European football.

Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) joined the comedy club shortly after. He knew nothing about soccer, but he and Hunt bought a PlayStation and played FIFA before and after each show.

During these gaming sessions, Hunt would teach Sudeikis about the different players and teams and eventually, they came up with the fictional character of Ted Lasso.

When Sudeikis was asked by NBC in 2013 to create a promo for the Premier League, he instantly thought of Ted Lasso. The commercials were a huge success – drawing 28 million views combined.

In fact, Sudeikis and Hunt (and Joe Kelly) actually wrote a script for the show in 2015 and shopped it around to different networks. No one wanted it.

Finally, Bill Lawrence (the creator of Scrubs) agreed to produce it in 2017 and the rest is history.

Who knew a fictional character born out of games of FIFA in Amsterdam would turn out to be so popular?

Parting Thoughts

I was going to say something about March Madness, but you probably don't care. Here's to letting my Hoosiers affect my mood for the next 1-4 days though.

Side note: this is 100% the least amount of time I've spent working on a newsletter so far, so I hope it didn't suck too much.

Anyways, back to the Madness.

Make Your Free Throws* (signing off like an upset college basketball fan),

Kevin

*Remember, they're just kids