[PREV - MAPGAME]    [TOP]

TRICK_OF_ATTENTION

 
                                         August  9, 2003
                                    Rev: August 17, 2004

I call it the "trick of attention":
   
The learned ability to focus in on 
the world, to turn up the gain on                            
your senses, to perceive everything                           
that can be perceived.             
                                                          
As opposed to the normal
running mode of seeing                                  
only what we need to                                    
see...                                    Feel like I must've written
                                          about this before, but it's
  We live with perceptual                 not out there in the                 
  filters that screen out                 doomfiles at the moment.            
  "unimportant" detail.                                                     
                                                         Maybe I need to    
     Not a new idea by any means.                        pay attention. 
                                                           
     Holmes: "You have seen,                                               
     but you have not *observed*."                                            
                                                                             
                             Of course, Holmes was                       
                             talking about precise 
                             scientific observation,     
                             which is a little        But it is connected:   
                             different.               one of the things you  
                                                      learn in scientific    
                                                      work is that you can   
                                                      detect tiny differences
                                                      if you try.            
                                                                         
                                                          E.g. on a          
                                                          typical mercury   
                                                          thermometer, you    
                                                          can read it to       
  I have the impression                                   a tenth of      
  that many people never                                  a degree, plus/ 
  learn this trick.                                       minus one tenth.
  They go through life                                                
  with shields up.                 On the other hand:                      
                                      
                                      AMERICANBEAUTY         
                                               

  I was trying to explain this 
  to a friend once, then stopped 
  when I realized I was probably 
  going into too much detail:
                                    
    "But of course, *you* know what                   
     I mean. You can learn it from                 Now me, I probably  
     Zen, you can learn it from John               learned it from     
     Cage, you can --"                             bad science fiction       
                                                   where mystic psychic    
    "Actually, I think I learned it                abilities abound.   
     from doing acid."                                              
                                              THE_SECRET_MASTERS_OF_DESTINY        
    "Oh."                                       
                                                       Trying to be 
                                                       Matt Murdock.


                      
                   One use for this "trick",        
                   is to overcome over-familiarity,    
                   to see what's in front of you    
                   that you've stopped seeing      
                   because you've seen it too long.    
                                                   
  
  
  
  
--------
[NEXT - BURST_OF_ROSE]