Cognitive Miser
The Gosp River ran thick and slow through Greenstone Town [1]. It was in the post-pandemic (covid) era, spring 2023. Megan Tennant, the town's culture councilor, created a new activity at the town's annual spring games. The background of this game was to allow the new young inhabitants to get to know the streets of the town and its establishments better, with the objective of increasing knowledge and empathy between the new inhabitants, the streets of the town, and its small businesses. This was because in the last five years the population of the town has increased considerably due to the installation of a large international company in the industrial zone of the town called Trailblazers Valley, which is about two miles east of the town centre, so Megan, with the support of Mayor Max Scott and Melanie Bardell, the administrator's county, created a game called "Where's the Postman?"
The game was for two teams of three participants each, where all of them were from Greenstone High School. The selection of participants process was carried out through a test of knowledge of the streets, squares, shops, and monuments of Greenstone. The winner team was prized by an exposition of images and quotes from the game's performance in the museum during the summer at the town hall. The rules were pretty simple, Knowing that the local postman, whose name was John, starts working at Greenstone's streets at 7 a.m. from the post office, which is an old building in the center of the city, close to the town hall, the task of the participants would be to find the postman through the streets of the town, so they would start the search at 11 a.m., they were allowed to ask establishment attendants or residents of the town about the postman to get clues about where he was. Obviously, the team that managed to find the postman first would be the winner.
It was 10:30 when Jordan Hansen arrived at the city hall building; he was the last to arrive. There were Erin Parham and Kyra Tyler from his team; Iris Covington, Theo Lason, and Doug White from the other team; and culture councillor Megan Tennant, who was the creator and person responsible for running out the game. At that moment, the weather changed unexpectedly. The sky darkened very quickly with blackish clouds, and a cold breeze began to blow. In Megan's head, when she was organising this event, it seemed like a popular event on a bright day where many locals would be interested in this game, but the reality was that there was no one else there other than the two teams and herself, and on top of that, the weather did not invite anyone at all for this event. Notwithstanding, Megan was ready to start the game. She gave the instructions to the participants and commented that the postman had already been warned that high school students would be looking for him, but that, however, he had to continue doing his job as a usual day.
Greenstone Town is split to the both sides of the Gosp River, with the north of the city on one side and the south on the other. The city has grown from the north side, which has three main streets parallel to the river: High Street, Medium Street, and Low Street (next to the river). All the new buildings have been built in this area. There are three bridges to cross the river: the Green Bridge in the west, the Stone Bridge in the middle (it is the old town), and the newest, the New Stone Bridge, which is in the east, near the industrial area. The old town sits mainly on the south side of the city; the main street is Heathrow Road. From there, you can go to the town hall, the post office, banks, shops, restaurants, etc. And then, crossing the Stone Bridge, you reach the poorest part of the old town, with a small harbour for fishing boats.
It was 11:03 when Megan allowed the participants to begin the postman search, she was hoping to meet them again in approximately a couple or three hours at the same location. As an instinct act, each team started in opposite sides of Heathrow Road, soon losing sight of each other. Jordan's team saw a bakery shop, so Jordan and Kyra went straight to ask if they had seen the postman around. The attendant said that he had no idea about the postman this morning, Kyra figured out that the postman had started in the opposite direction of the Heathrow Road, towards the eastern part of town, so they switched their direction. Erin was following them behind. Ten minutes later, when they left the post office behind, they went into a convenience store. Again, the attendant said she had no idea about the postman. At that moment, it was raining, and their clothes began to get wet. Jordan guessed that the postman was not there because he must have started his work on the other side of the river. Then they crossed the Stone Bridge. At this time, Erin was still following a little behind, but she began to frown. On the Low Street next to the river, they saw the lights of a small pharmacy, so Jordan decided to ask there, and again, the attendant said the postman hadn't shown up yet. Then again, Kyra suspected that the postman must be in the opposite direction of the Low Street, Jordan agreed, but Erin said, 'STOP IT!' Kyra and Jordan looked at Erin, surprised. 'What?' Jordan said.
Generated by AI
'Stop acting like cognitive misers; we can't be running around like decapitated chickens.' Erin said.
'So what do you propose we should do then?' Kira said.
'something more than just asking if the postman has stopped by or not, because what are we going to do now if in the next store the attendant says again that she has no idea about the postman? go to the north? And then what if the same thing happens again? We should simply stop for a second and think about it; I could assume that the postman delivers by areas, and furthermore, there may be areas that may not be in the same order every day of the week. We should also take into account whether the postman uses a car, bicycle, trolley, or simply walks to change areas.’
Then Erin turned around, saying 'follow me', and Jordan and Kyra did so without complaint. Erin went to the pharmacy again and apologetically asked for more information about the postman, considering it was a Wednesday at 11:40. The attendant and a friendly customer were in the store. They explained to them that on Wednesdays the postman use to come around 1:00 p.m.; in fact, it was one of the last areas the postman did before returning to the post office, and they added that at this time the postman used to be at the east of Medium Street and that it is easy to find him because he uses a red troller that used to be tied to a street light or a fence on the sidewalk that used to be on a street corner where it is easy to see from different sides, so the attendant said, 'if you find the red troller, stay there because the postman will appear soon.' So, after that information, it was easy for the team to find the troller and then the postman, which let them win the competition.
When they were returning to the town hall, the rain had already stopped, and the black clouds began to disperse while a warm ray of sunlight began to aim over their heads. Jordan and Kyra were very grateful to Erin; they have definitely learned something from Erin in this game.
Toni Font Bardolet, Aberdeen 13/04/2024