Apollo Robbins | CDI 2013.

good to see you everybody's holding on another pocket so tight good to see you hello hello do a lot of shopping here hi ma'am how are you good to see you this is lovely you've got a nice watch does your ring come off very easily does your ring come off no do you have a necklace or anything like that no okay quit your checking I thank you it's kind of fun huh a souvenir I'm sorry oh whatever you get this hi sir how are you good to see you do you have any jewellery it's like a buffet in here just you have to tell where to start that's the hard part hello I love Dangerous Ideas because I've spent the last 20 years of my life studying human behavior specifically through picking pockets which is a rather strange thing I use something in might craft that is a misunderstood word a lot I use misdirection it's a very tricky word because misdirection most people think means look over here while I do something over here when actually it's really about directing attention and it's an umbrella term that means a lot of different ways that you can manage the attention of people in general an attention is so important because it leads to our reality it controls our perceptions as a guide through so I'd like to share with you a couple of things about the process that I use some of the experiences I've had with that and for example how I might steal something from one of you all right for when I approach somebody I walk into their space I have to make them feel comfortable let's bring up a little video on that and this piece I hear if you see do you have it don't know if we have it yet I'll wait for you guys there we go other screen perfect that's what I'm looking for so if you think about this but you have like a little circle around you kind of like a force field there's different spaces that you go through the social space the intimate the personal space of being our friend and then your intimate space for me I have to think of processes to allow me to go through each one of those to get close to someone different reasons that make them feel comfortable and ideas in ways that I can make them forget that I was in their space and that I left now I'm not somebody who a lot of people will ask were you a real thief I grew up around it my brothers were involved in crime but for myself I've been around the game but not been in the game I have a company that goes in and studies real thieves in studies the process of what they do and I've learned something that I think is a very valuable lesson from looking in these unusual places that's it attention is a limited resource the equations kind of flipped upside down it used to be that information was a limited resource we wanted to find the information but now there's so much information that we have to be very selective of how we use our attention there like mental dollars someone can steal your attention you can invest your attention it can be seduced away from you now I'll give you an example of how that can be overloaded for example when you think of a thief this is a gentleman who I had worked with put in the past his name is Gary Scott now Gary is following this lady here and going keep the music going as well so the lady here is overloaded she's got her bags her attention is fully loaded with her destination where she's going for and she's not identifying her environment so you see the gentleman behind her slips in front now he's going to try to push a block when she gets down to the bottom the escalator Gary Scott is a gentleman behind her with the jacket he uses the jacket to steal from her purse you can see the process here now the idea is at the end she didn't never knew that Gary was even in her space because her attention was so fully occupied you can imagine with her with those things how deeply occupied you are when you're walking in the same environment with a cellphone texting it's the same type of thing your budget gets used up here at the end you see the German stalls so they guaranteed steal the wallet out of her purse now there are different ideas of how attention works the model of attention for me I like to think of attention like a security system and if you think of that like if something comes into your perimeter it sets off an alarm and you pay attention to it but the other way your attention works is kind of a selective process that you choose to focus on something and my focus I like to think of it as a little imaginary character in my brain that's probably something I've done since I was a kid and I call him Frank now Frank is I really your working memory now go ahead and bring that up as well imagine that there's a little security guard and he's the one that filters all of your perceptions so he's sitting at a desk they're secured different perceptions are like visual auditory all of them coming into one location and he chooses what's relevant what is going to go to a memory versus what gets forgotten so his job is to choose what becomes part of your reality the interesting thing is if you give Frank something else to think about what if I asked Frank the correct question like or occupied him in a way that he had to rewind the tape he can't process his current perceptions while he's looking at a file so when he goes to access the file he's standing away from the desk and he can't process what's currently going on I like to think of the quote that Henry David Thoreau says is not what you look at that matters it's what you see because when you're focused even though your eyes are point in the direction you might not be able to see something so I'd like to give you a test and see how well some of you can do that and it involves your staying right where you are just to hold up your left hands all of you where you are I'm not yet I'm going to describe this for you first but there's a photo that I'm going to flip between two photos it's a perception test it's a flickr test similar to if you looked at your cell phone and you look back up i want you to see if you can see the change between the two photos when you see that change bring your hand down but otherwise keep it up in the air and don't let peer pressure influence you if everybody helps put your hand down your last one don't worry about it we'll give that a shot now can you go back a couple steps there we go now here you can see it's one photo with a gray frame in between it's flickering back and forth now I'm gonna give some of you a hint because you can get hard to see they're not going anywhere without this and don't tell your neighbors when you're elbowing them on the side I see some of that too now not only that what happens in your mind right now is you start looking at the mirrors you start looking at the windows you start looking at their shoelaces and sometimes you get tunnel vision and you don't see the difference but once you see it you can't help but not see it now for the rest of you they still have your hands up I'll give you a little bit more deeper hint and that look under the wing at the airplane the engine at the airplane it's coming and going and that's been going the whole time if it was a snake it might have bit you but what that just did was let me see it a little bit about how perceptive you are right now which makes this next part a little bit more fun I might bring a couple of people to the stage to just do a little demonstration I walked around doing a little bit shopping beforehand and there was a piece of candy that I found it now this is for a little bit different piece who who has the candy now would you hold your hands up there sir you've got one we have one over there a couple of other people I have the gold little candy there we have a couple of those great thank you for volunteering please welcome them to the stage the gentleman that have their hands in the air come on up hello sir how are you good to see you these would be my partners in crime come on up here sir and let's see you have not a whole lot on you right now just belt and things like that can you stand over this way for me oh do you have a watch on to you want one I've got a whole bunch I didn't have this when I came in there I'd say actually if I may let's see on my way borrow your watch for a second might have you time this and can you stand right here in this little white spot there for me what's your name Benjamin good to see you Benjamin how are you sir I'm doing very well good to see you sir can you bring out your hands like this I want to see what I'm working with we have a lovely ring there what is your name Daniel Norton alright gentlemen you can put the candy away for a moment do and put it in a pocket could you slide out your ring or you got a different piece of candy I have no idea what this is nice to meet you know it's good to see you nobody preciate the gift this is very nice oh good hi how are you somebody's giving away my candy it's yeah well actually ladies let's try this I didn't know you're going to be here but since you're both here I'm going to find a nice way to utilize you so would you do this for me would you stand right here for me just like this and would you stand right here behind this gentleman here I had no idea this was gonna happen staying right there for me sir and we have a couple prizes to go but now we'll do this rather quickly can you slide up your ring for me yes that's fast you do this often huh all right all right let's see you have the ring here you have a watch you've got a couple of things I'm on trial this would be a game between the two of you am i have you time me in a moment when I say when I just want you to keep track on that watch all right let's see do have let's do this as a hide-and-seek game if you would grab hold of my wrist with one hand and you're predominantly right-handed aren't you okay can you put your hand underneath my hand can you put your other hand underneath my hand as well now put them very close to my hands like this there's going to be a kind of a challenge between the two of you I want both of you to try to grab the ring when I let go and the one who gets it don't let anybody see it and don't let me see who gets it okay open your hand a little bit more all right on the count of three I'll let go both of you make it fist and take that hand behind your back okay one two three good all right we'll see how this works uh now with them behind your back I want you to choose whichever hand you want to put it in and then find a place to hide it on your body once you've hidden it on your body let me know you guys ready all right I'm gonna do a little bit of shopping what's your time you on this at two minutes let me know where we're at okay just say two minutes and I'm gonna do a little shopping can you bring your heads around and can we get some holiday shopping music great thank you so you've got a watch but you don't have the ring on right now do you have anything inside this pocket that would look like a ring all right anything down this pocket sir great let's see I figure this is kind of like relationships in a way isn't it all right so you don't have anything down here would you do this for me sir can you turn around this way for me just this way so we can see a little bit better now I want to see do you have something in this back pocket can you take this out just the contents of your front pocket for me sir what is that it's not what I thought it was sir is it there's something over there perhaps we're over on that side not sure thank you very much sir go and turn around for me there you go sir let's see what you have how are you lovely to see you sir you don't have a whole lot on you sir do you is there anything over here huh there's something in your pants pocket here yes did you have a wallet sir you do okay great just more make sure you can't quite see you at that done do you have anything inside that pocket sir this is like a pen oh you had it watch over here is that still there sir check and see alright good I was just double-checking that okay I thought I had something on me but I wasn't quite sure I see you how we left in two minutes great I think that we can stop then would you want to check sure this is something is a wallet black leather wallet that's what that is I didn't put my hand in your pocket I'm not ready for the commitment I was just double-checking it's a one-time a guy had a hole in his pocket that was rather traumatizing jamia I was looking for my wallet gave me a phone number he still writes I won't cut the music if I'm correct I believe sir would you the time you have was that 2 minutes do you have a wallet in your front left pants pocket would you bring that out for me now this wallet doesn't belong to you does it now sure I don't know if this looks familiar too but there's something inside I think if you take a look it's not a little security chain does this look a little bit like your ring you go sir souvenir also for both of you we brought a few gifts in this case it's from the ladies behind you we've got I believe this is your belt sir and then we also have your watch and sir let me see do you have we have a couple of things here for you I believe this is for you sir and this your sugar packets that was cash yes great pleasure thank you very much sir and you still have your watch yes and it was this also yours this here do you have everything else everything else sir see this is a lot like the perception test when you're watching did you hold your hand earlier your pills no I didn't take a hmm oh the pills container I'm sorry that's a new year sir you have everything else huh okay I didn't wanna make a spectacle out of you sir thank you very much as a pleasure Oh your glasses oh that's a great idea there you guys there thank you very much give them both a big round of applause thank you very much the pleasure thank you ladies thank you thank you I believe ladies these candies are for you yeah they go thank you there you go thank you thank you very much sir yes actually the young lady right there could you return that to her thank you very much can we have another round of applause for these folks they were really kind I think that was fun it's a fun little demonstration to see but it's not about this being a weakness of those people it's about those people being human like I said before about Frank our attention is a limited resource we only have so many mental dollars but our attention steers our perceptions if you don't pay attention to something you can't perceive it if you don't perceive it it doesn't become part of your reality what's more than that is if somebody else steers your attention they can shape your reality so that's a question I like to post you if you could control someone's attention what would you do with it thank you very much

Channel: LaCiudaddelasIdeas

Views: 232,614

Rating: 4.9181819 out of 5

Keywords: andres roemer, roemer, ciudad de las ideas, grupo salinas, poder cívico, congreso, mentes brillantes, ideas, pláticas, conferencia, ciencia, pensar, puebla, conocimiento, pensamiento, idea, cdi, cdideas, talks, speakers, ted, Apollo Robbins (TV Actor)

Id: UCWJpRKULIc

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 18 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/donkeykong_punch]

This guy stole the ink insert from Penn Jillette's pen and put the pen back, in front of other magicians without anybody noticing, and then had him try to use the pen before. That story blows my mind.

[u/DarthPlagiarist]

The main "performance" kicks in at 10 minutes, but the rest is still worth watching.

[u/jameskelsey]

I highly recommend his Ted talk as well

[u/dforderp]

This guy is awesome, but my personal favorite is Bob Arno!

[u/[deleted]]

You can recognize an expert on how he can fluently educate you on a specific subject. I really appreciate Apollo and I am always amazed by how good he is. This is the first time I see someone stealing glasses and this is really baffling. Loved the video!