“Really, you know you can do it. Just take a deep breath.”
“No, dude, I really can’t. I swear, it’s impossible.”

 
“Impossible? Why is it impossible?”
“It just is. If I drive over that bridge, I’ll die. I’ll have a panic attack or something. My heart will freeze up or something.”

 
“Ok, let me get this straight. If you drive over that bridge, you will die. But if I drive, you won’t drive.”
“Yea.”

 
“So it’s not actually the water that will kill you, it’s the combination of the water and the steering wheel? The brake pedal? The accelerator? How exactly does that work? How do you know that will happen?”
“What do you mean how will I know? I just know.”

 
“What if you could run through your thinking in slow slow motion. Like if they made a clone of somebody that was exactly like you, but they forgot to put in that piece of information about dying while driving over a bridge, how would you tell that clone to program that into his brain? What or how would he have to think for that to happen?”
“Well, first, wait! Why am I supposed to give this to somebody else? I don’t want it, why should he want it?”

 
“Just pretend, ok? So what would you tell him?”
“Well first, you see the water, and then you feel the car moving, and then, you get this, I dunno, tightness, and then you just know. You will die.”

 
“Ok, water, car moving, tightness, you’re gonna die. Got it.”
“Are we done yet?”

 
“No, well yea, well almost. Where did you learn this?”
“What do you mean?”

 
“This model of the world, it’s very interesting. Where or who from did you learn this model of the world?”
“I’m not sure, man.”

 
“I mean was there a time where water plus driving plus tightness meant something else? And for some reason you decided to make them equal death, that is when you mix them together right? Where exactly did you learn this model of the world? Did you see it on TV or something?”
“Wow, I never thought of it that way. I guess that time I was a kid. When I heard that that kid drowned.”

 
“Wow, sounds terrible. What happened?”
“These kids were jumping off a bridge, and their mom wasn’t paying attention, and one of them hit his head, and then died.”

 
“Were you there?”
“No, but I think my mom told me about it. To make me be careful and not jump off bridges, I guess.”

 
“Do you trust your mom?”
“Of course.”

 
“Did you ever jump off a bridge after that?”
“Um, nope, never.”

 
“So your mom’s story worked, right?”
“Yep.”

 
“You’re safe, right?”
“Yep.”

 
“Did she say anything about driving over bridges? Or only jumping.”
“Dude I was only six.”

 
“So you made up the driving part yourself. Did you understand driving at the time, how it works, how to go to the DMV and get a license and all that?”
“Dude, I was only six.”

 
“So maybe the driving part was a mistake?”
“Yea, I guess so.”

 
“Are you read to go?”
“Yea.”

 
“You want me to drive?”
“No, man, I got it.”

 
“Good.”

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