Humans Are Bad at Randomizing
People trying to act randomly can converge on recognizable choices. When unpredictability matters, use an external randomization mechanism rather than intention alone.
Ask someone to choose a number from one to ten, and there is a good chance the supposedly free, unpredictable choice will be seven.
E1Intention is not a random-number generator
A person can intend to be unpredictable while still producing a patterned result. The instruction “choose freely” leaves the mind to generate a choice—and that process can repeatedly favor the same answer. Trying harder does not remove the chooser’s tendencies; it keeps the same chooser inside the loop. Divination as Randomization Device offers the contrasting move: shift the selection to an arbitrary external procedure.
E1Where it shows up
The number-seven test
The one-to-ten prompt exposes the gap between feeling unconstrained and producing an unpredictable distribution: a choice can feel spontaneous from the inside while remaining guessable from the outside.
E1Predictable is not the same as worthless
This example establishes that an unaided choice can be patterned; it does not show that every human choice is predictable, or that random selection is preferable when judgment and deliberate trade-offs matter.
E1Move chance outside your head
For a low-stakes decision that genuinely requires unpredictability, define the options first and let a die, shuffled cards, or a random-number generator select among them.
Episodes that teach this
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Why Superstition is Smarter Than Science - Chesterton’s Fence Explained - Future IQ
· explained at 4:43
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"Humans are terrible at randomizing... think of a number between 1 and 10... you thought of the number seven."