RAY: This comes from someone named Brad Hamill. This fellow takes his Volvo to the shop. Now, it could be any car. And he complains of a strong pulsing in his brake pedal when he applies the brakes. The mechanic looks over the car and finds that, sure enough, the front disc brake rotors are warped. He installs new ones and sends the fellow off on his way. Five thousand miles later, the same car owner comes back to the shop and complains that the pulsing is back.
TOM: Oh!
RAY: Suspicious and yet confident that his work was perfect, the mechanic asks the owner a few questions. "Do you ride the brake? Have you tightened your lug nuts with a high-powered air wrench, or has anyone done that?" "Have you bought new tires?" The owner answers no to all questions. In fact, he answers no all the time to everything. The mechanic is at a loss and replaces the warped rotors.
A thousand miles later, the guy comes back, and guess what? He has an oil leak this time. But a thousand miles after that, he comes back with the same problem. This time, the mechanic asks straight up what the heck he's doing to the car that could be causing this problem, knowing that there's nothing wrong with the parts and nothing wrong with the installation.
The fellow says, "I don't know." He says, "I go on a lot of long car trips, and it's always the day after I arrive home from these trips that I start feeling the pulsing, but never during the trip."
TOM: This is great!
RAY: The mechanic asks him one question, and he knows the answer to the puzzle. What question did he ask him?
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The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
