This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2014 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

Once upon a time there was a little boy named 

Jackie. Jackie liked to do all sorts of things, like 

colouring, playing baseball, and hanging out with his 

friends. However, Jackie's favourite thing to do is 

playing with his lego sets!

Today was Saturday, which meant Jackie could stay in ALL 

day and build more lego creations! Jackie has one problem, 

though. He can't find his lego instructions anywhere! How 

could Jackie build legos without the instructions! Jackie was 

lost, and asked his big brother, Sartre.

"What do I do, Sartre? I can't find any of my lego 

instructions!" asked Jackie

"Calm down, Jackie. Listen to me: Legos are abstract 

creations. They weren't created with a specific purpose or 

end point. You can build whatever you would like with these 

legos, even without the instructions! Use your brain and come 

up with something unique on your own!" said Sartre, before 

retreating back to his room.

"Build whatever I want, huh?" though Jackie. 

"Maybe I'll build a boat! Or a spaceship! 

Or...or...hmm, this is hard." said Jackie, who 

suddenly found himself quite perplexed. "I 

don't know what to do! There are so many 

choices! Maybe I should go for a walk to clear 

my head."

And with that, Jackie went outside for a nice 

long walk.

Jackie was enjoying his pleasant walk, but he was still 

confused. How could he just build anything he wanted? 

"How can I just build things without instructions?" he 

thought, "I just don't understand."

Jackie's head was about to explode. Just then, however, 

an idea formed in his head.

"I know!" exclaimed Jackie. "I'll ask my teacher what to 

do! He's the smartest person I know!"

So Jackie began to walk towards his school.

"Hello Mr. Skinner" said Jackie, "I was wondering if you could help me with something"

"I can try my best." he replied.

Jackie explained his problem to Mr. Skinner. Mr. Skinner stood in thought for a few seconds before his 

face lit up with an idea!

"Jackie" he began, "you have always used the instructions when building lego. It's the only way you know 

how to do it at this point. You have been conditioned through repetition to use the instructions." Jackie 

nodded his head as Mr. Skinner continued "No matter how hard you try, you cannot escape your 

conditioning. This is called determinism. If you ever want to build legos again, you're going to have to find 

those instructions." Jackie was happy with this answer, because building without instructions was 

something he didn't think he could do. "Thank you so much, Mr. Skinner. You're the best!"

"Well, I'm glad I could help you, Jackie. Oh! One more piece of advice before you leave. Just because you 

have to use instructions to build the lego, it does not mean you can't change things up a little bit. If 

you're building legos according to the instructions and you think of something that you'd like to add to 

your creation that isn't in the instructions, feel free to add it on if it will make you happy."

Jackie thanked Mr. Skinner again before walking back to his house.

When Jackie got home, he immediately began searching 

for the lego instructions.

"Yay! I finally found them" Jackie exclaimed after a 

rigorous search. "Finally I can start building!"

Jackie took the first instruction manual he saw, which 

was for a car. Jackie had used these instructions 

countless times before, building the same car 

each time. This was all Jackie knew. Jackie 

began to unpack his lego bin, picking out the 

specific pieces the instructions call for.

As Jackie pulled out the lego pieces from the 

bin, he noticed something peculiar. He didn't feel 

the usual rush that he tends to get when he's 

about to build a new lego creation. Nonetheless, 

Jackie decided to build the car. Jackie was 

assembling the pieces the same as always. He 

noticed that he barely even needed the 

instructions, as he had nearly memorized them. 

Jackie was bored. 

You've previewed 15 of 23 pages.

To read more: