My Favorite Liar | Zen Moments

• My Favorite Liar | Zen Moments

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  • What made Dr. K memorable was a gimmick he employed that began with his introduction at the beginning of his first class:

    “Now I know some of you have already heard of me, but for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar, let me explain how I teach. Between today until the class right before finals, it is my intention to work into each of my lectures … one lie. Your job, as students, among other things, is to try and catch me in the Lie of the Day.”

  • Early in the quarter, the Lie of the Day was usually obvious – immediately triggering a forest of raised hands to challenge the falsehood. Dr. K would smile, draw a line through that section of the board, and utter his trademark phrase “Very good! In fact, the opposite is true. Moving on … ”

    As the quarter progressed, the Lie of the Day became more subtle, and many ended up slipping past a majority of the students unnoticed until a particularly alert person stopped the lecture to flag the disinformation.

  • On the days when nobody caught the lie, we all sat in silence, looking at each other as Dr. K, looking quite pleased with himself, said with a sly grin: “Ah ha! Each of you has one falsehood in your lecture notes. Discuss amongst yourselves what it might be, and I will tell you next Monday. That is all.”

  • And while my knowledge of the Economics of Capital Markets has faded in time, the lessons that stayed with me were his real legacy:

    • “Experts” can be wrong, and say things that sound right – so build a habit of evaluating new information and check it against things you already accept as fact.
    • If you see something wrong, take the initiative to flag it as misinformation.
    • A sense of playfulness is the best defense against taking yourself too seriously.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.