On pendulums and society

[Rodion Romanovich]

Questions:

You have a pendulum swinging from side to side. It is very heavy, and you along with millions of other people are allowed to throw objects at each of the sides of the pendulum to slow it down or accelerate it.

1. If you can see the pendulum at all times, and get the following options on what to do when the pendulum is about to pass the middle position, which should you pick?
a. give it a push in the direction it is already moving
b. don't touch it at all
c. give it a push in the opposite direction of what it is moving in

2. If you saw the pendulum a while ago, but then had to close your eyes, and now without opening them again have to make the same decision as that above, which would you choose?
a. give it a push in the direction that it was moving when you closed your eyes
b. don't touch it at all, leaving it to those who can see the position and velocity of the pendulum, or leaving it to friction to slow it down
c. give it a push in the opposite direction of what it was moving when you closed your eyes

3. If the time it takes the pendulum to swings from one end to the other is around one to two lifetimes, and you see the pendulum when you're young but then stop looking at it, what answer would you give to question 1 when you reach the age of 50?
a. give it a push in the direction that it was moving when you were young
b. don't touch it at all, leaving it to those who can see the position and velocity of the pendulum, or leaving it to friction to slow it down
c. give it a push in the opposite direction of what it was moving when you were young

I won't discuss how I think this applies to politics, I merely wish to see if these questions are perceived as easy in this isolated form, to see if it is the recognition of this pattern, or the reasoning about this isolated problem, that often makes people make what to me seems like odd decisions in such questions.

The right answers are:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1 c
2 if you were alone, it's not possible to tell, but probabilistically, b is the best option most likely to be best in most cases
3 c
A better option not available above is of course to try and look at the pendulum again under 2 and 3, but that wasn't part of the question.