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On not noticing rather too many things

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Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#51

Post by hotnfresh »

xyzelement wrote: post #11

I think we all have different radars - and also what we perceive consciously and unconsciously differs. For example, my wife has a much keener recognition for something that's messy - a full sink or a shirt laying on the floor of my office will "scream" at her louder that it does at me. Although, I suspect the mess still "affects" me - eg I might be less focused/happy in the messy environment despite not thinking abo…

Keith Johnstone's book Impro recommends an exercise involving looking around and naming everything you see out loud, but deliberately giving the wrong name in every case. Look at a chair, say "banana!", stuff like that. Can be done with a partner or a group, too. A few minutes of that is supposed to have a perspective-shifting effect—making things feel off such that you notice more details—lasting hours or days.

I tried it once, just for just a few seconds, and it did seem to have an effect. Need to try really doing the exercise one of these days.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#52

Post by dylan604 »

stavros wrote: post #22
xyzelement wrote: post #11

I think we all have different radars - and also what we perceive consciously and unconsciously differs. For example, my wife has a much keener recognition for something that's messy - a full sink or a shirt laying on the floor of my office will "scream" at her louder that it does at me. Although, I suspect the mess still "affects" me - eg I might be less focused/happy in the messy environment despite not thinking abo…

I once went on a flight in a glider. I fly RC planes, so I know how to fly (in theory), but I wasn't able to fly the glider well. The pilot, on the other hand, obviously flew with no problem. I noticed that this wasn't because I didn't know what to pay attention to, but I didn't know what to ignore . I knew very well that I needed to pay attention to my speed, attitude, etc, but there was so much sensory overload tha…

This is why "hours" are so important for pilots, but not just pilots. "Hours" for pilots is just a way of saying experience, but cooler. Every aspect of life has different ways of letting others know your experience in something. Ranks in the military, Senior/Junior dev titles, intern, apprentice, black belt. Some are just more mundane, and also get ignored!

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#54

Post by 3PS »

stavros wrote: post #22
xyzelement wrote: post #11

I think we all have different radars - and also what we perceive consciously and unconsciously differs. For example, my wife has a much keener recognition for something that's messy - a full sink or a shirt laying on the floor of my office will "scream" at her louder that it does at me. Although, I suspect the mess still "affects" me - eg I might be less focused/happy in the messy environment despite not thinking abo…

I once went on a flight in a glider. I fly RC planes, so I know how to fly (in theory), but I wasn't able to fly the glider well. The pilot, on the other hand, obviously flew with no problem. I noticed that this wasn't because I didn't know what to pay attention to, but I didn't know what to ignore . I knew very well that I needed to pay attention to my speed, attitude, etc, but there was so much sensory overload tha…

This really rings true to my early experiences with driving. As a novice, every moment driving was a sensory overload. Check the rearview mirror! Am I going at the right speed? Is anyone overtaking me? Am I staying centered in the lane? How long has that light been green? Plus all the little mechanics of actually operating a motor vehicle, actually moving your hands and feet the right amounts.

Now, a lot of getting better at driving was just building up muscle memory and good habits, yes, but I think a lot of it was really improving my selective perception and being able to quickly filter out the irrelevant to focus on exactly what was needed to drive safely and effectively.

I also play a lot of fighting games in my spare time, like Guilty Gear, and I feel this there as well. Pick up a new fighting game - especially if it's your first one - and quickly get overwhelmed by all of the things happening on the screen and all of the precise button presses you're expected to make. But then over time, you filter out all the noise and just track the minimum information - the positions of characters, the strategies, the higher-level gestalts at play - and end up spending much less cognitive effort for more effect.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#56

Post by neilv »

> Last year I was on a date, and, [...] I had not seen this.

And some people who are closer to "hyperobservant" in many contexts might've also missed that sight -- because they were in a social context, and focused almost entirely on the conversation with the other person.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#57

Post by Jeff_Brown »

swayvil wrote: post #40
Jeff_Brown wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you meditate you are aware the whole time, right? What do you define as the difference between awareness and attention?

I guess I'm aware the whole time. I fall into distraction sometimes too tho. I'm not sure exactly what you mean. I use the terms (awareness , attention) synonymously. To put it another way. It's like a flashlight. I shine the beam upon a river of experience-stuff (sights, sounds, thoughts...) When I pay attention to a thing, I direct the beam at that thing. When I concentrate, the beam narrows. When I refrain from al…

Ah, so "awareness" for you includes the option of "everything" while "attention" does not. For me "everything" is an option for attention.

I agree that broadening the beam is, among other benefits, enjoyable.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#58

Post by atomicnumber3 »

glitchc wrote: post #32

This is mainly a question of attention directed inwards vs outwards. From a biological perspective, situational awareness is what has allowed our species to survive, there's evolutionary pressure. That this behaviour is so prevalent now, given the comments, suggests that our environments have become too safe and human beings are losing this awareness. It also suggests a high degree of narcissism, where my own thought…

For the purposes of natural selection, everything that's happened since the Pyramids (and probably several hundred thousand years prior to that) is effectively instantaneous and natural selection/evolution has had no time to "react".

If anything, the narrative should be that clearly being inattentive in safe scenarios isn't selected against and thus can't be that detrimental to reproducing successfully.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#59

Post by pfannkuchen »

whalesalad wrote: post #9

Ah yes a casual date thru the tenderloin. These are the types of individuals with no situational awareness that end up getting hurt and wonder why. The world will kill you if you let it.

I haven't been there recently so maybe it has gotten more obviously bad, but pre covid at least there were some bars in the tenderloin that were easy to end up walking to without realizing which part of town you are entering.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#60

Post by xyzelement »

KittenInABox wrote: post #36
xyzelement wrote: post #11

I think we all have different radars - and also what we perceive consciously and unconsciously differs. For example, my wife has a much keener recognition for something that's messy - a full sink or a shirt laying on the floor of my office will "scream" at her louder that it does at me. Although, I suspect the mess still "affects" me - eg I might be less focused/happy in the messy environment despite not thinking abo…

> For example, my wife has a much keener recognition for something that's messy - a full sink or a shirt laying on the floor of my office will "scream" at her louder that it does at me. This may be because she's trained more that there are negative consequences for her, or that she's responsible for that stuff. I don't really pay attention to tickets I'm not assigned, for example, unless they're on stuff that I'd be…

You'd probably get in trouble too if they found your makeup brush :) But on a serious note, I think the difference in attitude between me and my wife is deeper.

She puts a higher premium on solving problems right now and doesn't mind solving the same problem multiple times, whereas I am more interested in solve-it-once-and-for-all type situations, and please less emphasis on something being fixed right now vs a bit later.

Not surprisingly, her personality is a perfect match for emergency medicine while mine for engineering and product management.

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