Fighting Assumptions Podcast

Picture this: you’re buckling your seatbelt, the cabin doors are closed, and the flight attendant makes the familiar announcement to switch all devices to “Airplane Mode.”

If you are like most people, you probably assume you’re doing this to prevent a catastrophic technological failure. The common assumption is that the radio frequencies blasting from your phone will somehow cross paths with the cockpit’s navigation systems, blinding the pilots and sending your plane into a sudden nosedive.

It’s a terrifying thought. It’s also completely wrong.

Welcome back to Fighting Assumptions, where we unpack the things everyone “knows” to be true, but actually aren’t. Today, we are taking a look at the enduring myth of Airplane Mode; and why the real reasons you are asked to disconnect have more to do with ground networks, annoyed pilots, and your own sanity.

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We’ve all used the excuse. You walk into the kitchen, stare blankly at the open refrigerator, and realise you have absolutely no idea what you came for. “Ugh, I have the memory of a goldfish,” you mutter to yourself.

It’s a universally understood piece of cultural shorthand. We are told, and thus we assume, that the humble goldfish (Carassius auratus) lives in a perpetual loop of instant reset: a serene, blissful existence where every three seconds the universe is born anew.

There’s just one problem: It’s complete nonsense.

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Imagine you flick a switch and, in a fraction of a second, a lamp across the room hums to life. We’ve all been taught the same “common sense” explanation: the battery or wall outlet pushes electrons through the copper wire like water through a garden hose, and those electrons carry the energy to the bulb.

It is a beautiful, logical, and intuitive model. It’s also almost entirely wrong.

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Today, we are tackling a phrase you’ve probably used to comfort a friend: “Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.”

We use it to reassure people. Survived a freak round of corporate layoffs? Don’t worry, lightning never strikes twice. Dealt with a bizarre plumbing disaster? Relax, lightning never strikes twice. It is a linguistic pat on the back, implying that the universe operates on a strict quota system for bad luck. Once you’ve paid your dues to statistical improbability, you are safe.

It is a lovely sentiment. But as a scientific rule of thumb? It is dangerously, objectively wrong. In fact, lightning loves to strike twice. And three times. And sometimes a hundred times.

It’s time to retire this assumption.

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We have been conditioned to believe that the “ballot box” is the ultimate symbol of freedom. We are taught that the right to vote is the finish line of democratic progress.

But if you could transport an ancient Athenian, the very people who invented demokratia, to a modern polling station, they wouldn’t congratulate us on our “freedom.”

To the Greeks, the root of democracy wasn’t the vote. It was the lottery.

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We’ve all seen the cartoon: a sleek, bug-eyed chameleon strolls across a checkerboard and poof it’s covered in black and white squares. It’s the ultimate metaphor for adaptability. We use the word “chameleon” to describe politicians who shift their views to fit the room or socialites who blend into any crowd.

There is just one problem: The premise is almost entirely false.

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You’ve seen the chart: a friendly graph showing a “Fat Burning Zone” at a low, conversational heart rate, and a “Cardio/Performance Zone” at higher intensities. The assumption we’ve been fed is simple: if you want to lose fat, stay in the slow lane. If you want to get fit, speed up.

Let’s fight some assumptions…

It’s the undisputed champion of circular reasoning, the ultimate rhetorical question used to describe a situation where it’s impossible to tell what caused what: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Science actually has a definitive, undisputed answer to this question. The assumption that this is an unresolvable paradox is false. From a biological and evolutionary standpoint, the egg came first. Period.

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We picture bats as creatures of the pitch-black night, relying entirely on biological sonar to frantically navigate the skies while their useless, unseeing eyes go along for the ride.

But there’s a massive problem with this assumption: Every single bat species in the world has eyes, and none of them are blind.

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We all know the story of the giant wooden horse. But the archaeological and historical realities of the Trojan War point to a very different kind of destruction.

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