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On not noticing rather too many things

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Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#61

Post by metalcrow »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #35
swayvil wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everyone, 24-7, is paying attention to something Not to nitpick but that ain't necessarily so. In meditation we study attention and do neat tricks with it. One trick is a refinement of plain old concentration. The other trick is breaking the habit of always paying attention to something. That second one is especially neat.

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

Not necessarily. One of the Jhanas (states of mind attainable through meditation) is "Neither perception nor non-perception". This can be described as not being aware, but it's complicated.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#62

Post by glitchc »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #58
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.

That is certainly very recent, although I agree with your core point, that we are but an instant on an evolutionary timeline. Life has normally been much more dangerous than the past 70 years. We don't know how long it will last either.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#63

Post by gardenhedge »

JohnMakin wrote: post #3

One time, at a family gathering, I asked where a relative named Cindy was. The entire room got silent and stared at me. I found out later she'd been dead for a few years and I somehow had not noticed or had forgotten.

This is actually a fear of mine. It often makes me hold my tongue because I need to think "should/do I already know this?"

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#64

Post by saulpw »

The City And The City (China Mieville). Two nations, occupying the same physical area, and occupants of either nation have been trained/socialized since birth not to see or interact with the other nation. If they do accidentally, for example with car accident that breaches the psychosocial barrier between them, they must 'unsee' it lest they risk an illegal breach themselves.

Sounds like the OP was in the United States of Silicon whereas pooping man was in the Democratic Republic of the Tenderloin. His g/f breached instead of unseeing it like any natural citizen of the US would have done.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#65

Post by 1auralynn »

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…

Ah yes, the "SEP field" from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which makes things invisible (Someone Else's Problem)

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#66

Post by hoc »

I'd say, whether this is a good or bad thing, will, as always, depend on the environment and what it demands from you. So, in a Darwinian way, the fit(ness) of those two.

If this secures your income and your environment is able to fill in for the more attentive parts, you're well set.

There are enough possible settings and helpful augmentations in our current society to survive and prosper with any kind of focus/attention distribution. Given they are applied to a somehow matching problem/problem space, this makes up much of this society's success.

So the most positive, and therfor naturally sympathetic, aspect of the post might be the happy acceptance of one's own configuration without the need dismiss that of others. While there has always been a tendency of generalist dismissing specialists and vice versa, the insight that we only (or at least much better) progress with the right combination should not be forgotten, even if we feel unsecure or a bit greedy or envious when the opposite talent of ours was a much better fit for a certain situation, or position, again, and got all the praise this time. (Everything else will make you look Dunning-Kruger anyway.)

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#67

Post by strken »

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.

The tenderloin is really not that dangerous if you don't bother the drug dealers, don't antagonise the crazies, and keep an eye out around you. I lived there for a bit over a year.

It's a miserable place for a date and everywhere smells like piss, but two uninvolved walkers are unlikely to be killed in the middle of the street.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#68

Post by TMWNN »

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…

>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 that I didn't know what to process and what to just ignore.

A fixed-wing pilot may have an easier time transitioning to the V-22 Osprey because he doesn't have the helicopter pilot's training/habit of constantly fiddling with the controls. http://web.archive.org/web/20120914073208/defense.aol.com/20...>

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#69

Post by kirrent »

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…

Getting overloaded is common in stressful situations in aviation where it's often called getting behind the airplane. It's the reason we're taught to aviate, then navigate, and then communicate. It's a graceful degradation where by purposefully ignoring what's not currently most important you can focus on what's most important rather than failing at everything. For me flying gliders, the most stressful situations I've been in are winch launch rope breaks with questionable land ahead possibilities. In those cases I've never made a call that I'm entering a modified circuit. Despite a decent amount of experience, I'm just too busy.

Relatedly, gliders are really good at flying themselves. I heard a story about an aerotow where due to a miscommunication the instructor and student thought each other were on the controls. They only discovered this once the instructor praised the student for their best take-off yet. Similarly, learning to land feels like it's about doing the minimum possible. Keep the nose up and just wait. So not only are good pilots paying less attention to distracting inputs, they're also spending less effort controlling the glider on the output side.

Re: On not noticing rather too many things

#70

Post by xattt »

resolutebat wrote: post #45
slifin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of car furniture we add to streets is insane I look back at pictures from before cars with envy, they're so clutter free in comparison

That's only because you can't smell the horse shit. New York City alone had 4 million pounds of the stuff deposited daily.

The Toronto Islands have an exclusive neighbourhood where there is no infra for cars. No driveways and sidewalks are the street.

From the times I’ve walked there in nice summer weather, it’s utopia.

(1) https://www.thestar.com/life/want-to-rent-on-toronto-islands...

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