[Rescued from my old blog.]
Teen dd looks up from her Geometry book. “Hey, Mom, guess what? I finally figured out how palm reading works.”
Now there’s a career choice I really want to encourage, right?
With some tredpidation, I ask, “Um… How?”
“When you look at your hand,” she explains, “and it’s all covered with scars, then you know it’s time to declaw the cat!”
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 
We learned how telephone psychics work in geography class…that was a fun exercise in statistics! Given an area code and birth date, you can come up with all sorts of interesting demographic information. If you know that 20% of people in a certain demographic engage in a specific behavior, you can make an educated guess at what your caller is involved in. 80% may laugh and hang up, but 20% will become loyal callers.
And given that the answers start vague, you can sometimes rule out a bit or get some help from the caller.
I thought it was rather fascinating just how predictable people can be.
Hmmm… I was always very good at figuring out what the teacher wanted to hear and BSing my way through essay tests. Does that mean I have a future as a phone psychic?