Tricks
by
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Children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged persons, and the elderly (65 years and above) have used in one point in their life effective ways to trick other people. One could argue that tricking is the result of a tricking gene or a tricking biological market we have in our body. “Tricks,” however, argues that tricking is not an unique trait, because it is generally shared by most people, and that tricking is a behavior learned by people to survive in their environment. Tricking as a learned behavior can be illustrated with many examples. Learning to drive a car is a tricky behavior for many people; but once this trick has been mastered, the new driver would quickly learn that it is acceptable to cross a red light if he or she is in an emergency situation (e.g., late for work, or in a chase with a police car behind).
Learning to wear the “right” clothes and keeping them on across the entire working day is a tricking behavior for many workers, particularly during a hot summer day. Some workers, however, experience the opposite trick: they have to dress when going to work but to undress when they are at work. If a person can’t undress when performing a job (e.g., a naked dancer in a gentlemen club or a model in an adult magazine), that person won’t qualify for that job regardless of credentials and skills showing that he/she can perform that job very well in the privacy of his/her house (but he/she wouldn’t dance in public without clothes on).
Actually, the trick of undressing at work has been an accepted practice for centuries. For example, Michael-Angelo used to hire people who agreed to undress so that he could use these people as role models for his sculptures. One case in point is the sculpture of David which Michael-Angelo produced by looking at a naked man resembling David. You can see this sculpture at the
Another important survival trick is to learn to wear appropriate clothes when looking for a job. This is the “dress for success” trick. If a person doesn’t wear the “right” clothes during the job interview, it would be hard for that person to get the job, regardless of that person’s qualifications for the job (e.g., having a doctoral degree, 20 years of experience fixing cars, or handling a lot of cash in banks). Thus, an applicant could have an empty brain but would get the job because he or she used the “dress for success” trick during that interview. This explains why it is a good idea to check “Yes” in item No. 4, Table 1.
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About the Book
In the Second Book of Moses: Exodus, Chapter 3, No. 10, God asked Moses to remove the children of Israel from Egypt. Moses, however, realized that God’s request was a difficult trick to perform because it would require parting the Red Sea. After thinking hard for several days, Moses performed his most famous trick . . . he actually divided the Red Sea in half. The Bible argues that everything was created in just seven days; but the Big Bang people introduced a trickiest argument: that everything was created in a matter of seconds! The "dress for success" phenomenon is a trick closed to our brain: one could have an empty brain and still get the job if one happens to dress "neatly" and as "expected" for the particular job. This book shows that tricking is a learned behavior one can use to escape or avoid difficult situations, and also to get what one wants. Tricks also provides an exercise to assess people’s ability to trick. Tricks was written to give the reader’s mind a break from stressful situations and bad news.
About the Author
F. A. Paniagua, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,