Readers Day | How smart are you? Count some letters
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” - Albert Einstein
I’ve always agreed to that. And because of that, I’m gonna test your intelligence with a very simple problem.
Below is a quote that I’ve used in a previous post, and what you have to do now is to count how many F’s (both uppercase and lowercase) are in it. Simple enough? I think so. Here it is:
Kant… accepted the notion of things-in-themselves existing independently of any knowledge… As his starting point [he took it] that any specific knowledge we claim to have of such and such an external object is obtained through our senses, [and] hence is at best only indirect and questionable… What we know directly and with certainty is therefore only the set of our ideas. [For example,] the very notion of causality [is] a priori mode of human understanding, in other words, an idea. - d’Espagnat
Finished counting? How many F’s (both uppercase and lowercase) are in that text? Tell us in the comments. I’ll tell you your results there.
—
Note: Please don’t use the search feature of your browser to count the F’s.
If you're new here and have found useful information, please subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for free Email updates. There are daily updates and you should stay tuned. Thanks for visiting!
or
Subscribe to e-mail updates:
I counted 6. Do i win a prize?
1
Hey Oblivion, that’s pretty good. You are above the average!
Unfortunately there are no material prizes involved, the only prize here is the satisfaction of knowing how bright you are.
Tiffany, I’m sure you can do better than that. Feel free to try again and focus a bit harder.
I see one F (as in capital) and 2 f’s (as in lowercase). I know I am anal but I thought you meant capital F’s. So is three the answer?
Do the last two lines count?
Finished counting? How many F’s are in that text? Tell us in the comments. I’ll tell you your results there.
—
Note: Please don’t use the search feature of your browser to count the F’s.
If so, that would be seven all together.
My mistake there Tiffany; I was referring to all the f’s (both uppercase and lowercase). I’ve edited the post to make that clear for others.
Those last two lines don’t count. The target text is the quote from d’Espagnat and there are more than three f’s (an average person counts only 3).
i counted 8 “F’s”
It’s the way our mind works. We dismiss the “of”s. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Helps us to read faster =P
I counted 9, and no, I didn’t use the find function. However, don’t ask me to quote the text or explain what it’s about.
*May: First of all, welcome around.
8 out of 9 is a very good result, pretty rare. Congratulations for that!
*Personal Development for the Book Smart: That’s right, we unconsciously skip the “of”s when reading.
But in this case, given that in order to count all the f’s you should read -all- the words, the conscious should take over. And that’s exactly the exercise, to see how many people really put their mind to work (and focus) when needed.
*V. Neely: Impressive!! I didn’t expect anyone to count all the f’s there. That means that you have a very good control over your intellect and you are able to -really- focus on something when you want to.
The average person would skip all the “of”s and count only the 3 f’s that are inside the other remaining words.
It’s -incredible- that you’ve counted them all, congratulations!
I count seven F’s. Uh,oh, I just read V. Neely’s comment and Neely found nine. And Titus-Armand’s answer confirms that that is the correct number. So now I must go back and count again.
OK, now I have found 8 F’s. But you say there are nine and I can’t find the other F. So maybe I am too dumb. :0)
Hey Bill, I’m sure that you’re not too dumb to count all of them.
Maybe the reason why you didn’t spot the 9′th one is because you skipped the “[For example]” part?
And of course this is a general type of experiment… one may not be in the mood for focusing or may have the mind on some other problems, things which will affect the activity.
Anyhow, 7 (and later 8 ) is -very- good! It’s more than double of what an average person can do, so it’s impressive.
Here’s where the 9 f’s are:
1. notion of things
2. independently of any
3. any specific knowledge
4. have of such
5. is therefore only
6. set of our
7. For example
8. notion of causality
9. mode of human
Armand, if I may address you in that way for short, thanks for the kind reply. I went back and counted one more time and finally found the ninth F. It’s in the ‘is therefore only’ and I kept skipping it. Oh well, enough of that. But I agree, it is a fun little exercise.
Hey, no problem. I’m very glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Armand,
Got 9 of them first time.
But I am not sure I understand the relationship between counting letters and being smart? Could you enlighten me? Thanks
Cheers
James
PS: Thanks for the comment over at my blog too, it’s been answered!
The idea behing this is simple.
When reading, people usually skip certain short words (of, the, and, etc) and by asking someone to count certain letters in a text that contains those words, you’re testing their ability to - really - *focus*. If they can’t focus their mind to read and consciously look and see all the words, it’s a sure thing to say that they wil miss some of those “skippy” letters.
I don’t know if I explained this too well but that’s all I can do right now, as I’m moving some furniture pieces around the house.
If i count only what i see,then 9 but i counted alto the ones I heard like the f from “with” -th pronounced f- and i got 13
Titus-Armand,
This is one of my favorite games. I went through 3 times. The 3rd time I found the 9 F’s. I’m getting better. It’s an enjoyable challenge, though. Next time, perhaps a different text.
Bill
@Chris: The phonetic f’s don’t count; you can’t count letters that aren’t physically there.
@BillSalem: I am really glad that you like it and I’m thinking of building a new variation for it. A new letter from another hard to perceive word.
I’m off to research!
[...] many readers responded positively to a previous post that required a simple counting of how many F’s are in a text, I thought of posting another brain exercise. This one will get your brain on its [...]