Wild Animals

I have come up with the perfect geek-o-meter. Quick, if you could have any wild animal for a pet what animal would it be? I read this question on a children’s place mat at a restaurant yesterday and asked my secretary the question and she immediately answered chimpanzee. Now this is a very simple question with a very simple answer, it is not like any of us are actually going to get a wild animal for a pet. There is no need to analyze the question. After lunch I conducted a small experiment and asked my co-workers the question;

If you could have any wild animal for a pet what animal would it be?

The responses were wild, not one co-worker actually picked an animal but they all asked me questions, about the logistics and responsibilities that come along with owning a wild animal. Geez!! They all over thought the question. In fact most could not even answer the question because they were too concerned about the organizing of this wild animal into their nice logical lives. I finally had to say, Oh my God! It is not like this is a real question. If you asked a child this question they would answer in a millisecond, for example Tiger! If you asked the follow up question, where would you live? The child would start telling you about their super cool tree house in the jungle and their tiger that protects them. The object of this exercise is to test if you can use your imagination, turn off your logic centers and just be a kid at heart. The lessoned I learned by asking this questions to my co-workers is, no they can not turn of the logic processing centers in their brains, they are serious lacking in imagination and they are all geeks!