The truth
On a recent trip across Ghana, I played the game “Two Truths and a Lie” with a group of 16 other people—mostly highly cultured, well traveled, and intelligent adults—and I was able to correctly guess people’s lies with astonishing success. 
The game is simple: people make three statements about themselves or their life experiences, two of which are true and one of which is false. The others in the game try to guess the one lie among the two truths, and people record their success as everyone gets a change to try to trick the others.
Sixteen people played with me; I identified an odds-defying 14 of the 16 people’s lies. (One of my two misses was my own mother’s lie! All others in the group were complete strangers.) The next-best guesser of lies had 10, with most hovering around 5 to 8. What does this say about me?
One fellow bus traveller said that I had an obvious future in sales or “any job working closely with people.” I had never considered myself particularly adept at relating to people, but this changed my outlook a bit. Of course, it could have been luck that lead me to victory, but at the beginning of the game, I told my mom that I knew I would easily guess the most lies. I’ve always been good at Two Truths and a Lie. How to I take advantage of that in a positive way?
P.S. For those wondering what my two truths and a lie were, see below. Leave your guesses in the comments!
Statement 1: When I was a toddler, I was a “foot model” for child footware.
Statement 2: One of my life goals is to eat the world’s hottest pepper.
Statement 3: My mother was in labor with me for over 24 hours.
P.P.S. Stay tuned for Part 2 in this series: How I Was Able to Correctly Identify People’s Lies Nearly 85% of the Time.
(photo licensed via CC by xtrarant)
