In yesterday’s post, I reprinted an e-mail I allegedly received from a 10-year old fan named Bobby. Many of you believe it was a hoax. Some say the kid seemed too smart to be real. Others point out that he could have easily Googled the answers to the questions he asked if he was really so smart.
The three most popular theories about Bobby’s e-mail are…
1. It’s a hoax, written by me
2. A mischievous adult wrote it.
3. A parent edited it heavily
I didn’t write the e-mail myself, and I believe it’s not a hoax. I just e-mailed his dad to ask if an adult edited it, but I expect not. I’ll let you know.
The hoax hypothesis fascinates me. It’s an excellent test of our collective bullshit filters. Allow me to describe how I applied my own filter to this question.
First, I asked 10-year old Bobby to ask a parent to e-mail me. The next day, I got an e-mail from his (alleged) dad. I asked him by e-mail if Bobby is really only ten. He confirmed his age, and says he will be eleven in the fall.
I also asked what Bobby’s IQ is. His dad says he doesn’t know, but Bobby is in the gifted program in public school. They recently moved from the Pleasanton CA area (my neighborhood), where Bobby also went to a public school.
None of this information rules out the hoax hypothesis, but let me give you some context. Earlier this year I was asked to give a talk to the gifted kids at a Pleasanton school. Most of the kids were around 10-years old. I can tell you from that experience, and from years of reading my e-mail, that gifted kids tend to be huge Dilbert fans. They “get” something about Dilbert without any need to relate to it as cubicle dwellers.
The experience with these gifted kids was exhilarating for me. When you put that many geniuses in a room, at any age, you can almost hear the electrical activity in their collective brains.
I started my talk by asking if anyone knew what skills you need to become a famous cartoonist. I expected someone to mention art, and probably writing, maybe spelling. Then I planned to surprise them by saying my background in business was most important. That was my plan, anyway.
Twenty hands shot up. I called on Adam. “Business,” he said. First guess. No one had even mentioned drawing yet.
Yes, I was in the gifted class.
I get a lot of e-mail from gifted kids, and they usually mention their ages. Bobby’s letter was extraordinary for an average 10-year old, but not that unusual for a gifted kid. If you think it’s a hoax because it’s impossible for a kid to write that sort of e-mail, you haven’t interacted with many gifted kids.
But why would he ask me several questions he could have answered via Google, particularly something as simple as driving directions to my restaurant? Answer: Adults, even smart ones, ask me for directions to the restaurant all the time. As an ex local, Bobby was probably looking for a more user-friendly answer along the lines of “It’s by the new Safeway in Dublin.”
Ironically, his questions about my voice issues and affirmations showed skepticism about what he reads on the Internet, not an inability to use Google. He went straight to the source. How’s that not gifted?
He could have checked the spelling of Occam in about the same time it took to doubt his spelling in parentheses. I confess I do the same thing all the time in my own e-mails. Proper spelling is overrated.
Last, I read more e-mail, from more people, than just about anyone in the world. I can tell a lot about people from the way they construct sentences. For example, I can tell a man’s writing from a woman’s in the first sentence or two, with about 98% accuracy. It’s something I’ve been tracking for years. I take a guess about the gender and check it against the name when I get to the end.
I also get a lot of e-mail from gifted kids. They have an inexplicable similarity. If Bobby is really an adult writing as a kid, it’s one of the best hoaxes I’ve ever seen. I can’t rule out anything, but I would be amazed if Bobby isn’t real.
I’ll see what I can find out for you.
What do you think?