Three Card Monte Trick

The year was 2011; it was my first time in Paris. I was waiting to get on the streets of this beautiful city and explore its magnificence. After seeing some famous touristy places, I choose to walk on the streets. I saw a few tourists playing the Three Card Monte game on one such street. The game is simple; the game operator shows three cards with two aces and one queen. The queen is called a 'hype', and you, as a player, should find its position when the operator throws all three cards inverted. I was not playing; I was only observing. Why was I not playing? Because I had heard several stories of how it's a scam, many people get fooled on the streets of Mumbai. So, I had never even observed such tricks in Mumbai, but this is Paris. It's a more developed city. So I can at least observe.

When a couple started to play, I saw clearly that the queen was on the right, but unfortunately, the couple chose the centre card, which was incorrect. Now there were only two covered cards. So I jumped into the game and said it's the right-side card. The operator said he would show me that card only if I bet 50 euros to win 100 euros. What do you think I did? I gave my one-day per diem to that operator and asked him to show me. Please don't ask me what the card was. He then asked me to play again to win back my lost money. Before I tell you what I did, let's see what happened here.?

Have you heard about the "Dunning-Kruger effect"? It is where people fail to assess their incompetence at a task adequately and consider themselves more competent than everyone else. Or, as humorist Josh Billings said, "It Ain't What You Don't Know That Gets You Into Trouble. It's What You Know for Sure That Just Ain't So." It is not just in the three card monte trick, but in different areas of our life, we are victims of the 'Dunning-Kruger effect. We are ignorant and ignorant about our ignorance; it's that "Don't Know, Don't Know" zone.

As David Dunning says,"?'An ignorant mind is precisely not a spotless, empty vessel, but one that's filled with the clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, facts, intuitions, strategies, algorithms, heuristics, metaphors, and hunches that regrettably have a look and feel useful and accurate knowledge. This clutter is an unfortunate by-product of one of our greatest strengths as a species. We are unbridled pattern recognizers and profligate theorizers.' And this puts us in trouble. Ego and arrogance further ensure this ignorance's status quo, and thus there is no realization until it's too late.?

Now, what was my response to the invitation of the operator to play again to win back my money? It was simple, "No, Thank You". As I started walking away from the scene, I could see how that couple was part of the crew, the switching of cards was to make me believe how smart I was and how this whole circus was orchestrated. It is not only on the streets of Paris or Mumbai that such games are played; they happen at different levels in different set-ups. However well-designed the games are, there is the easiest way to beat those. It is, Simply Never Play.

P.S.: If you are interested in the topic of Leadership then do check this short video on "UnLearn With Prasanna".