I have always loved thought experiments. It is a fun way to play out alternate realities, or to just play with a concept. I had a go to question that I would ask people, especially at parties. The wide swath of answers always intrigued me. There was no right answer, but there were definitely ones that were better than others. I am realizing just now, that although I thought I was looking for an open mind, the reality is I was trying to figure out how people think. A pursuit that has always been a cornerstone of how I interact with my peers.

With this in mind I think I am going to start a path of posts called Thought Experiments. Which will be questions I that I feel are worth diving down the rabbit hole for.

The question that started this all:

If you left from Texas how far could you go?

The answers varied, from "Who cares?", to "Where ever I want" (the answer I always hoped for), to "Oklahoma". I always pressed for more, if it was a simple answer like "Denver". Asking why they chose that. More often than not they would say because I could drive there. To which I always responded, what if you had a boat or a plane? Which would change the answer. But again more often than not, I would get a simple answer. They couldn't look outside the box I was giving them and think of something beyond it boundaries. I distinctly remember one guy getting super pissed off at me because I kept pushing back with "what about". He kept taking the smallest mental leaps, that opened the door for so many alternate possibilities. This specific incident has always stuck with me. Was he close minded? Did he hate me? Was I interrupting his attempts to chat up someone? Was he too drunk to think with a clear mind? Who knows, all I know now is that at that moment in time he did not want to be bothered by my inane questions.