Trigger
I recently came across an article that used this dilemma (the article used the other name for it, i.e. Humphrey’s law) for exposition purposes but misapplied it. Pardon me, I forgot to save the source for this article.
The Essence
The essence of this dilemma, as I understand it, is that when humans routinely perform a complex activity are somehow triggered to consciously think about it, they may fail to perform it again after the trigger.
In the case of the centipede, if someone unexpectedly asked the centipede how it manages to move all legs without a glitch, the centipede trying to answer this question would suddenly stumble, because the centipede becomes self-conscious about her leg movements.
Or in the case of a top athlete, if the top athlete has a winning move, but instead of carrying out this move as usual he or she starts to think/hyperthink about it perhaps how to improve it etc. suddenly fails.
Caveats
The centipede’s dilemma could be in a feedback cycle with the confirmation bias that people like to do what other people expect.
Worse, it perpetuates what I have to paraphrase as “Someone has done the same thing for many years, but despite the many years, it is incorrect or ineffective etc.”.
Is it not one of the unique human abilities to be able to constantly reflect about any action, fact, or thought and reevaluate?
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