Lesser Thoughts

Inspired by lunch-time conversations, these questions will make you ask... "What would I do in that situation?"

[lesserthoughts]

Bomb Threat

“Joe, the bomb is located in exact middle of the city.  It’s something we have never seen before, we don’t know how to disarm it, but it looks really big and will cause a lot of devastation.  The only option we have is to move it so that is causes the least amount of death and damage. What do we do Joe, what do we do?”

You are Joe.  As the leader of the first responder team, it is up to you to decide where to move the bomb.  You have 30 seconds to decide.  You only have enough time to move the bomb 4 blocks.

Move it North on Main Street, towards the senior center where 300 people 50+ years old live

Move it South on Main Street, towards the high school where 100 students are in class

Move it East on Elm Street towards the shopping center where there an undetermined number of people, but probably a wide distribution of ages since the shopping center includes a day care, pet care, and a grocery store

 Time is ticking, what do you do?

[lesserthoughts]

Master and Puppet

After a particularly bad day, you are sitting on a park bench trying to make sense out of how the world runs.  You are pondering why some people with no discernible talents succeed and become management while other who have tremendous talents fail.  

A blinding light appears and an elegant being made of light descends from the sky, landing immediately in front of you.  The being states, “I am a puppet master who can grant an alternate reality.  I have heard your plea, and I will grant you this offer, but you must say yes or no immediately.”  The puppet master then makes this offer… you may take his place as puppet master and become a leader of others or you may remain as you are, a follower and a puppet with someone else pulling the strings.  As a leader, you are responsible for the lives of multiple people, their livelihood, well-being, and happiness.  Their success and their failures are on you and you will be locked into these responsibilities as long as you have followers.  As a follower, you may pursue your own goals and live your own life, but you must follower your leader.  You have opportunities to break the connection to your puppet master, but only with great probability of peril.  As a puppet master and leader you will sacrifice a lot, but also be rewarded a lot.  As a puppet and follower, you will have a consistent level of sacrifice, commitment, and reward.

 Which shall you choose? Puppet master/leader or puppet/follower?  

[lesserthoughts]

Van Halen...

David Lee Roth?

Sammy Hagar?

Pick.

[lesserthoughts]

Show Them Who’s Boss

There are so many people in the world who are just plain stupi, annoying, or have used their fame to harm others. Fortunately, they are all seated in the same restaurant with you! You have one chance to slap any one person and run out the door before getting caught.  Who is it going to be?

- Madonna

- Kim Kardashian

- Justin Bieber

- Barack Obama

- Francco Schettino (former captain of Costa Concordia)

- Aaron Hernandez

[lesserthoughts]

Jagged Little Pill

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.*

Which shall it be?  You have 5 seconds to decide:

Red pill

Blue pill

*Thanks to the writers and producers of The Matrix for making an awesome movie an keeping the science-fiction theme of absolute choices alive.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pill_and_blue_pill

[lesserthoughts]

The Best Conversation I Ever Had

You accidentally stumble into a university's research facility where you are shocked to find the researchers are actually building a "way back" (time) machine. Not wanting to pass-up a really cool situation, you want to learn more.  So, you slip on an unattended lab coat and make yourself look like a lab geek.  With confidence, you walk into the lab where none of the researchers question who you are.  You quickly learn that the device is not a true time machine, but instead it can transfer either your past-self or your future-self into a hologram for 1 minute. The hologram is completely interactive and you can ask it questions.   But, you learn that the device is dangerous and it contains a flaw where roughly a third of the user test subjects have suffered permanent brain damage.  You also learn that the device only works once per user and can never be used again by that user. The researchers head-out for lunch, leaving you alone in the lab. What do you do next?

Leave the machine alone, it is dangerous.

You take a risk and use the machine to render a younger version of yourself.  How much younger? Do you tell your younger self anything which could affect your future?

You take a risk and use the machine to render a future version of yourself.  How much older?  Do you ask future-self anything to affect your current situation?

[lesserthoughts]

Rated 4 Stars

You have been going to a restaurant for years.  It is close to where you live in your neighborhood, has a reasonably priced menu, incredibly friendly staff who know your name and remember you from previous visits, and the food is terrific. You have never had any cause to second guess their menu ingredients or their food safety and methods of preparation.  

You take a new colleague from work to the restaurant. He tells you about a story he saw on a news program where restaurants in the neighborhood were being investigated for questionable ingredients added to local favorite dishes.  His story turns your stomach, but also gets you thinking about this restaurant.

Your favorite server brings you your favorite dish automatically, something made with sausage prepared in-house.  What do you do?

Don't question the restaurant or the dish.  You have never had any reason to in the past, why should you now?

Ask the server for a different menu item, just to be safe.

Ask the server what the dish is made from and if he/she would it eat.

Ask to see the kitchen.

[lesserthoughts]

Doing a Job Well?

You have been given a work assignment at your job to complete 5 tasks.  You are the only person who can do the job and there is no one else around.  Halfway through the work day, you realize that you have only completed 1 task and you only have enough time to complete 2 more tasks. You have to make a decision:

Do you complete 2 more tasks in their entirety, do them well with high quality, ensuring they are 100% complete, and leave 2 tasks uncompleted?

Do you complete all remaining tasks, knowing that you might have bypassed some quality and/or missed some minor pieces of each task?

What is your job?

Your job is a night stocker at a local grocery store.

Your job is a pediatric nurse at a children’s hospital.

Your job is a cook at a high-risk detention facility for teens who have been convicted of violent crimes.

Your job is a shelter worker at a pet rescue facility.

[lesserthoughts]

Time for a Story?

You are in a public library and a well-dressed woman approaches you and says, "I'm going to make you an offer which you cannot refuse.  There are 3 doors in front of you.  Behind each door is a person who will tell you a story for 5 minutes.

Behind door A is an grumpy elderly man who was born in 1920 but has lived-through history.

Behind door B is a depressed soldier who has just returned from active front-line combat and survived many battles.

Behind door C is a friendly child who always has a bright smile.

Which door do you choose?

[lesserthoughts]

Riding the Bus

You have to ride the bus every morning to get to work.  You have no other option.  The transit company insists that you must be seated and cannot stand.  This morning, you get on the bus to find only 3 seats open.

Seat #1 is next to a man wearing a surplus army jacket, distressed and dirty jeans, and piercing of spikes through various pieces of his facial anatomy.  He does not make eye contact with you.

Seat #2 is next to a man wearing business casual attire, smells of an acrid smelling smoke, and is glaring at you with undoubted disdain. His gaze does not waver from you.

Seat #3 is near a pregnant woman and, for whatever reason, she is not sitting in it.  She looks at you as you board the bus and you see a look of distress or discomfort on her face, but she then quickly looks away.

Which seat do you take?

[lesserthoughts]

Welcome

Lesser Thoughts is a blog with postings of questions and scenarios to make you think and wonder what you would do in similar situations.  Have fun with these questions!  Postings are hypothetical unless otherwise noted, any relationship to current or past events or people is coincidental, and only to be used for entertainment.