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Centipede's Dilemma: Difference between revisions

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Centipede's Dilemma (view source)

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== Comics ==
* In one ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)]]'' story, ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/The Red Sea Sharks|Recap]]'', Captain Haddock is unable to sleep after Allan mockingly asks him if he sleeps with his beard under or above the covers. This ends up saving his life and those of [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|everyone on the ship.]] <ref>Captain Haddock is shown to sleep on his tummy in ''Tintin and the Picaros''</ref>
* There's a ''[[Garfield]]'' strip where Jon asks Garfield which way he puts his feet down when he walked. Garfield is then paralyzed.
** In "The Me Book," Garfield suggests an extremely subtle version for ruining someone's golf swing, in which he instructs the reader to tell the golfer, "Think about your right hip."
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== Fan Fiction ==
* Harry Potter from ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality|Methods of Rationality]]'' [[Subverted Trope|refused to share the secret]] behind the Patronus V.2, because it is unlikely that the majority of people would be able to reach the mental state necessary, and attempting it could [[Brown Note|destroy their own ability to cast normal Patronuses]].
* In Chapter 8 of the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanfic ''[[It Takes a Village (Fanfic)|It Takes a Village]]'' Spike finally figures out how to fly. He immediately makes it clear that ''no one'' is to ask him ''how'' he managed it, otherwise he might forget.
 
 
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' it is possible to fly as long as you don't think about the fact that you're flying. It's not terribly hard. All you have to do is throw yourself at the ground and miss (oh, and you have to distract yourself somehow right before you hit the ground).
* One of the ''[[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (Literature)|Callahans Crosstime Saloon]]'' stories by [[Spider Robinson]] is actually titled "The Centipede's Dilemma". In it, a character with a dangerous psychic ability is defeated and rendered powerless by using this technique.
* ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'': Referenced in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/A Hat Full of Sky|A Hat Full of Sky]]''. Miss Level once had this trope described to her by an acrobat: "Never ask the tightrope walker how he keeps his balance. If he stops to think about it, he falls off." This principle helped her out later on.
** This [[Truth in Television|was proven]] on a Derren Brown show, where he asked an experienced tightrope walker stuff like that, and repeatedly told him not to fall off. Guess what happened next.
* In Walter Brooks' ''Freddy the Pig'' series, at one point a beetle came to Freddy saying he couldn't walk anymore, since every time he tried he got distracted by where his legs were and tripped. Freddy had him stare at the ceiling while he walked, and it worked.
* There is a French story called "La Barbe", where everyone asks a man with a long beard how he sleeps with his beard. In an attempt to answer the question, that night he tries many different sleeping positions, and is unable to get to sleep. The next day, he gets his beard shaved off.
* ''[[The First Men in Thethe Moon]]'' begins with Bradford's attempts to write a novel being confounded by Cavor--who keeps walking past his house, shaking his shoulders and making strange noises to himself. Bradford confronts Cavor over it, and Cavor confesses that he's a scientist and that he finds his daily walk to be the best time for thinking about his research--and he's so engrossed in his thoughts that he had never noticed that he was acting so outwardly strange. About a week later, Cavor confronts Bradford--he hasn't been able to make any progress on his research in the past week, because every time he goes out for a walk he's too focused on the walking to get any thinking done. When Bradford offers to help with his research, Cavor brightens up, and as he walks back to his house, he begins shaking and making noises in his old manner.
* In the ''[[Babysitters Club|Baby-Sitters Club]]'' book "Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym)", when Mal's name is called to be on one of the volleyball teams and she starts jogging over to her teammates she suddenly becomes very conscious of her arms.
* Stephen Potter's satirical how-to-win-at-games-without-being-able-to-play-them book ''Gamesmanship'' lists breaking your opponent's flow in this manner as a fundamental technique, explicitly stating "CONSCIOUS FLOW IS BROKEN FLOW" as being "Rule 1".
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== Live Action TV ==
* During the ''[[Myth Busters]]'' test to see if you could swim through syrup just as fast as you could through water, the team acquired an Olympic gold medalist swimmer for a more accurate result. They ultimately had to ''throw his results out'' due to inconsistency. Why? Because he wasn't used to swimming in syrup, and his focus on what he was swimming through (and how it felt) messed with his technique. In contrast, Adam, who had gotten used to swimming in syrup and didn't have to think about it, had more consistent times.
* In ''[[Little Mosque On the Prairie (TV)|Little Mosque Onon the Prairie]]'', Sarah spends all day accidentally insulting people after Fatima asks her how she always knows the right thing to say.
* ''[[30 Rock (TV)|30 Rock]]''
** Kenneth tries to ask Liz a question, but she is in a hurry so he responds "Can you walk and talk at the same time?" Kenneth: "Well, normally I can, but now you've got me thinking about it" and he immediately starts staggering and slurring his words for a few paces.
** Jack in "Jack-Tor", who forgets how to walk, hold his arms, or enunciate words when the camera is on him.
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== Religion ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The [[The Bible (Literature)|Gospels]] of John, Matthew, and Mark give accounts of Jesus walking on water. Peter is initially able to do so as well, but falls once he begins to wonder how this could be possible. ([[An Aesop|The point is that Peter starts to doubt how he can do it, which means his faith in Jesus is faltering]].)
 
 
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== Web Comics ==
* Inverted in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'': When [[Gender Bender|transformed into a girl]], Justin initially has trouble walking because he tries to compensate for the new body... until told that he just shouldn't think about it, since the transformation gun already compensates.
* In ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]]'', [[Jerkass|Black Hat Guy]] invokes this by telling someone that it is [http://xkcd.com/972/ Tongue Awareness Month].
* ''[[Spacetrawler]]''. [http://spacetrawler.com/2012/01/03/spacetrawler-197/ Emily deliberately invokes it.]
{{quote| '''Emily:''' Nice shooting. I wonder if you'd trip up if you stopped to think what each tentacle is doing.<br />
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* Similair to the religious example above, a [[Running Gag]] in [[Looney Tunes]] is that a character can run (pun not intended) across water or even air just fine [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|as long as somebody else doesn't point them at this fact]].
** Lampshaded at least once in ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' - they can walk on air across a canyon as long as they don't look down.
* Happens to [[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]] when he tries to explain how shoelaces are tied, and gets so mixed up that he entirely ''forgets how to do it.'' Fortunately, Gary provides a "how to tie your laces" recording to teach him the process all over again.
** Actually, he realizes his shoes have always been tied.
** Another episode has Spongebob forgetting how to "assemble" a Krabby Patty after a rival {{spoiler|falsely}} tells him he forgot the pickles. It comes to a point where he tells Mr. Krabs that he cannot do it while saying the steps, then realizing he did just that.
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