The purpose of this blog is to create some random excitement at the Shabbat table... Please print and share.
My wife and I did something new and eye-opening this week.
We attended a Bingo.
It was a fundraiser for our son's camp, and we went as volunteers, not participants.
But it was a real Bingo, in a large synagogue social hall which has been running this program for decades.
The people there ranged in age from a couple in their 90s (married over 70 years) to a young single mother (there with her two children).
Most of them brought a kit with two main items:
1. A tote bag of paint-pens that they use to mark the numbers on the bingo sheets
2. Scotch tape to keep the sheets firm while they played (they played up to 27 bingo cards simultaneously),
Many of them set up a row of various lucky charms and idols.
In between rounds, we were asked to offer them instant-win lottery tickets.
I get Bingo - there is some (I stress some) skill involved - one has to concentrate and move quickly.
But the lottery tickets are different. First of all, there were many sets of tickets with different names like "Pot of Gold" or "Money from Heaven", but they all had the same prizes ($1, $2, $5, $20, $200) and odds. So why did some people buy some tickets and not others?
One lady asked me, "Are they paying one or two jackpots?" - meaning, will the $200 go to one winner or be split among two winners?
I went to find out, and the answer was the latter. When I came back with the answer, I asked her, "Was that the answer you wanted?"
"No."
he was only interested in playing for the $200 jackpot, not the $100 - even though it had better odds (let's say 1 in 50 as opposed to 1 in 100).
Question for your table - For a $1 bet, would you rather play for a 50% chance of winning $100 or a 5% chance of winning $1,000?
What if the bet cost $5?
What if it cost $50?
It's obvious that most gamblers think with their gut, not their brain.
And that gut is so stimulated by the temptation of the Jackpot that they are willing to go out night after night and spend their few extra dollars for that tiny chance.
What's less obvious (but has been proven) is that we all do this kind of thinking every day.
In the book I just linked to above, Dr. Kahaneman shows many examples of how people make choices based on their irrational gut and not on their head.
Would you rather have 5 minutes of excrutiating pain or 5 years of low-level pain?
When you remember that vacation 10 years ago, when that disaster happened, how much does that disaster loom in your mind versus the pleasant parts of the vacation?
When you planned your wedding, how much time and money went into each detail? And which of those details do you actually remember today?
The final word on this - and question for your table - is what matters more, the experience I'm having right now, or the memory it will create?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Feeling lucky? Want to click that image?
To learn about other JSL projects, click here.
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....
My wife and I did something new and eye-opening this week.We attended a Bingo.
It was a fundraiser for our son's camp, and we went as volunteers, not participants.
But it was a real Bingo, in a large synagogue social hall which has been running this program for decades.
The people there ranged in age from a couple in their 90s (married over 70 years) to a young single mother (there with her two children).
Most of them brought a kit with two main items:
1. A tote bag of paint-pens that they use to mark the numbers on the bingo sheets
2. Scotch tape to keep the sheets firm while they played (they played up to 27 bingo cards simultaneously),
Many of them set up a row of various lucky charms and idols.
In between rounds, we were asked to offer them instant-win lottery tickets.
I get Bingo - there is some (I stress some) skill involved - one has to concentrate and move quickly.
But the lottery tickets are different. First of all, there were many sets of tickets with different names like "Pot of Gold" or "Money from Heaven", but they all had the same prizes ($1, $2, $5, $20, $200) and odds. So why did some people buy some tickets and not others?
One lady asked me, "Are they paying one or two jackpots?" - meaning, will the $200 go to one winner or be split among two winners?
I went to find out, and the answer was the latter. When I came back with the answer, I asked her, "Was that the answer you wanted?"
"No."
he was only interested in playing for the $200 jackpot, not the $100 - even though it had better odds (let's say 1 in 50 as opposed to 1 in 100).
Question for your table - For a $1 bet, would you rather play for a 50% chance of winning $100 or a 5% chance of winning $1,000?
What if the bet cost $5?
What if it cost $50?
It's obvious that most gamblers think with their gut, not their brain.
And that gut is so stimulated by the temptation of the Jackpot that they are willing to go out night after night and spend their few extra dollars for that tiny chance.
What's less obvious (but has been proven) is that we all do this kind of thinking every day.
In the book I just linked to above, Dr. Kahaneman shows many examples of how people make choices based on their irrational gut and not on their head.
Would you rather have 5 minutes of excrutiating pain or 5 years of low-level pain?
When you remember that vacation 10 years ago, when that disaster happened, how much does that disaster loom in your mind versus the pleasant parts of the vacation?
When you planned your wedding, how much time and money went into each detail? And which of those details do you actually remember today?
The final word on this - and question for your table - is what matters more, the experience I'm having right now, or the memory it will create?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Feeling lucky? Want to click that image?
To learn about other JSL projects, click here.
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it, forward it....
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