The Zipper Test: How to Stop Fooling Yourself

My son just turned four. One of the things I love most about the age is the unbridled curiosity with which he explores the world.

He's deep in the classic "why" phase, taking me down explanatory rabbit holes that go long past my point of comfort.

But one of the most interesting prompts he asked recently was this one:

"Tell me all about zippers."

On any given day, zipper is replaced by some basic thing that we interact with. It might be tell me all about our car, or trees, or cooking pans, or the microwave.

I have a rule that I always engage with him on these little curiosity quests, even if they come at a bad time.

In doing so, I've realized something:

I know very little about how the most basic things around me actually work.

I start confidently, but my ability to answer "tell me all about [X]" generally ends after a few seconds. I quickly reach the outer bounds of my understanding and am forced, hat in hand, to consult with the internet to go deeper.

As it turns out, there's real science behind this...

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