Decision Making

In the last post I took apart a silly internet question: could 100 unarmed men beat one gorilla? Most serious answers agreed the men win eventually, if they accept heavy losses. One sub-question stayed with me. Who goes first? The man who started the debate gave the most honest answer. He would join the 100, just not the first wave. Most of us would say the same. So the first wave is made of volunteers, and probably the bravest ones. Here is the paradox. It takes brave people to go first. It also takes brave people to keep going after watching the first wave go down. If the bravest all go first, who is left for the rest of the fight?

I was walking my dog the other day and asked myself how I would explain critical thinking to students. Not the textbook version. The version where you take a question apart and find out it was never one question. My dog had no opinion on the matter. The example I landed on is a bit embarrassing: 100 men against a gorilla. If you missed it, the question started as a Reddit thread in 2020 and went properly viral in late April 2025. Could 100 unarmed men beat one silverback? TikTok argued, zoo directors gave interviews, and at least one US senator shared his view on the record.1