Ap Dijksterhuis
speaker
549 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 7 Sep
Ap Dijksterhuis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So here's a riddle.
Every day, water lilies double the surface area they occupy.
And at the start of the summer, there's only one lily leaf in the lake.
After 60 days, the entire water surface is covered.
On which day was the lake half covered with water lilies?
Now, if you hear such a riddle, your conscious mind is inclined to just say, okay, so you start with one lily and then the next day there's two and then the third day there's four.
But this is not going to get you anywhere.
And what you need is insight.
You need this sudden flash where you understand the riddle.
And this is usually...
This usually occurs to you only when you take a little distance first and maybe even, you know, go and take a walk or something.
And then you realize, well, okay, if after 60 days the lake is fully covered and the number of leaves doubles every day, then of course half covered means it's the day before the last day.
It's on day 59.
And if the right answer comes to you,
It comes in a sort of a flash.
It never comes when you approach it very analytically or consciously.
Yeah.
And then understanding the problem by turning it on its head is already the solution.
Because then once you know it, you know it's actually incredibly simple.
Yeah.
Showing 401–420 of 549 · page 21 of 28
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