Many years ago I heard something that changed my thinking.
It goes like this:
Supposing, in a laboratory, you have a rat.
You also have nine small tunnels side-by-side.
You put a piece of cheese at the end of tunnel 7.
Then you let the rat loose.
The rat can smell the cheese.
So it runs along the mouth of all the tunnels sniffing to see which one’s got the cheese.
It finds the smell is strongest at tunnel 7.
So it runs down that tunnel and gets the cheese.
The next day you do the same thing.
You put the cheese in tunnel 7 again.
The rat runs in again, sniffs all the tunnels, then runs down 7 and gets the cheese.
You do it a few times and the rat soon gets the message, the cheese is always down tunnel 7.
So it doesn’t bother sniffing all the other tunnels.
It just runs straight down tunnel 7 and gets the cheese.
Then you switch tunnels.
You put the cheese at the end of tunnel 3.
The rat runs in, runs straight down 7 looking for the cheese.
No cheese.
The rat runs out and sniffs along all the tunnels.
Then the rat smells it in tunnel 3.
So the rat runs down tunnel 3 and gets the cheese.
Now you try the same experiment with a human and here’s what would happen.
The first time around the human goes along and smells all the tunnels.
The human smells the cheese down tunnel 7.
So the human goes down tunnel 7 and gets the cheese.
The next day you do the same thing.
You put the cheese in tunnel 7, the human goes down that tunnel and gets the cheese.
Eventually the human, like the rat, learns the cheese is always at the end of tunnel 7.
So, like the rat, it doesn’t bother smelling the other tunnels, it just goes straight to tunnel 7, without even thinking.
Then one day you switch the cheese to tunnel 3.
The human goes straight down tunnel 7 looking for the cheese.
No cheese.
Now here’s where the human differs from the rat.
The rat will come out and check all the other tunnels.
The human will spend their entire life walking up and down tunnel 7.
Back and forth, complaining that the cheese should be there.
It’s not fair, the cheese is always in tunnel 7.
What’s gone wrong, why isn’t the cheese in tunnel 7, whose fault is it?
The human will complain to co-workers, and cry about the injustice.
We’ll get other humans to agree with us that we’re right, the cheese should be there.
We’ll go over the pub and get drunk and tell everyone how we got screwed.
We’ll get on the phone to our friends and go on and on about the unfairness of it.
In our head we’ll imagine scenes of getting even with whoever moved the cheese.
We’ll make them regret it.
We know they had it in for us, never even gave us a chance.
We’ll carry the unfairness of it to our grave.
As humans, we’ll spend our entire lives talking and bitching and moaning about the fact that the cheese should be there.
But it isn’t there.
The one thing we won’t do is drop it, and go out and look for where the cheese actually is.
We’ve got too much invested in complaining about where it should be.
We’d rather be ‘right’ than have the cheese.
And that addiction to being right is what stops us getting the cheese.
Which is what we say we want.
But what we actually want is to be ‘right’.
And we want that more than we want the cheese.
And that’s why rats are smarter than people.
OK, rats might be smarter than people.
But only WE know it!
Carl Russell - 11 June 2012 9:56 am
Some managers are known to mass-distribute copies of the book, ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ to employees, some of whom see this as an insult, or an attempt to characterise dissent as not “moving with the cheese”. In the corporate environment, management has been known to distribute this book to employees during times of “structural re-organisation,” or during cost-cutting measures, in an attempt to portray unfavourable or unfair changes in an optimistic or opportunistic way. This misuse of the book’s message is seen by some as an attempt by organisational management to make employees quickly and unconditionally assimilate management ideals, even if they may prove detrimental to them professionally. Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams claims that patronising parables are one of the top 10 complaints he receives in his email.
john p woods - 11 June 2012 11:03 am
Are you saying the cheese has moved , Dave?
rachel carroll - 11 June 2012 11:04 am
Dave – Does it still work if the human can neither stand the smell or sight of cheese?
Grilla Login - 11 June 2012 11:08 am
That defines human ego pretty well.
Jim - 11 June 2012 11:12 am
Yet again the economy slides, unemployment soars, banks get into trouble, governments rush to the rescue but somehow it’s only the banks that get rescued, not the unemployed.
Guess the big cheeses have nothing to worry about.
john p woods - 11 June 2012 11:21 am
Rachel,
The cheese is constantly moving, every day, that’s the point.
And we live our lives out of an emotional response to that, because we don’t like to think.
We want the cheese to stay where it is so we can relax.
We want to go on autopilot, what the Buddhists call ‘mind’.
Actually it’s the dichotomy between emotional mind and rational mind.
Emotional mind is comfy, without thinking, rational mind takes work.
Dave Trott - 11 June 2012 12:21 pm
Dave
I’ve noticed that all tunnels + carriages on the London Underground have a scent of cheeseburgers about them.
Also, that the strong perfume of cheese travels east 2 west thru the Euro Tunnel.
Do u have any information that the experiment has been scaled-up?
Grilla Login - 11 June 2012 12:48 pm
Thought so, Dave. Currently legging it after a speedy piece of cheddar myself. Cheese chasers of the world unite!
rachel carroll - 11 June 2012 3:18 pm
I’m not sure chasing after anything is the answer.
If we just do our own thing and work hard on our passions then maybe, just maybe, the right people/thing/cheese will eventually come to us… and stay.
john p woods - 11 June 2012 4:02 pm
What do you think it is that conditions us thusly, Dave? Getting something for nothing? People get lazy when they don’t have to work for things. I don’t know that we’re addicted to being right so much as we are too lazy to be wrong.
Also, is there something to be said for the absolute wrong approach to accountability? I’m all for being accountable for ourselves, but I think there’s an unreasonable need to assign fault where none may be present.
If lightning strikes a man in a field, who’s fault is it? In this day and age, I would not be surprised to see the Archbishop sued straight out out from under his mitre.
Chris Seiger - 11 June 2012 9:50 pm
Dave, perhaps it’s not just that the cheese moved from T3. What’s now in T3 is not Brie but Camembert.
Think sometimes, we keep looking for cheese to put between our bread, even when tuna is around.
Robin. - 12 June 2012 1:16 am
Great Post!
I think that children will react the same as rats in this particular case.
If that didn’t work, they can always cry a lot and eventually someone will give em the cheese.
Irfan - 12 June 2012 4:52 am
Whatever happened to the squeaky wheel gets the oil?
If anyone moves anyone’s cheese they better get ready for a fight.
john p woods - 12 June 2012 10:34 am
Mr. Trott, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by you that I disagreed with so strongly. Are you sure you haven’t transposed the findings of a study on the inability of rats to find moved cheese?
More horribly, this seems to be a metaphor for our economy, in which case it is not only false, but maliciously so.
From 1989-2002 I wrote resumes for over 7,000 clients. All of them were looking at the other tunnels, all of them were scrambling to explore every possible alternative. They all understood the cheese had moved, and were frantically trying to find it elsewhere.
Your story sounds a lot like the kind of B.S. peddled by motivational speakers. I’ve gained countless tremendous insights by reading your blog, but today I feel very betrayed by this astonishingly lame, utterly false story.
Mark Gisleson - 12 June 2012 8:22 pm
Dave,
Are you sticking to your guns on this cheese theory ‘cos I reckon there might be a few holes in it?
Maybe it’s a Swiss cheese and we all know the popular misconception Harry Lime spouted about the Swiss we like to bandy about.
john p woods - 12 June 2012 9:18 pm
Well, I guess this post is a real eye-opener. At least for me. I can think of too many situations when I was rather trying to be right than having the “cheese”.
Miroslav Saracevic - 12 June 2012 10:26 pm
The Rat has a small brain.
The Human’s is bigger.
Conclusion: We think too much.
Kev - 25 June 2012 8:19 am
Alternative hypothesis:-
Rats have small brains.
Human big brains.
Conclusion: Less is best.
Kev - 26 June 2012 9:19 pm