4 ms·

Please tell me more about this "proper education of being observant." Do you believe such a thing exists? Does it reliably make people consistently observant? W

Please tell me more about this "proper education of being observant." Do you believe such a thing exists? Does it reliably make people consistently observant? Would it work on me? I would pay a lot of money for such a thing.

yourapostasy 6y ago
Indeed, this is a "take my money", "I'll subscribe to your newsletter" kind of breakthrough that I would dearly like to see everywhere (and in myself!), not just in the context of driving cars.
dataduck 6y ago
I understand this was supposed to be sarcastic but I've been informally working on this for years. I have a technique which seems to work wonders with students but I haven't the resources to test it scientifically, so do with this information as you will. The technique is simple: ritually venerate the thing you wish to be more observant of, and never denigrate its value. So in the case of traffic stopping, have a thing that you do whenever you notice it (e.g. tap your braking foot), even while you're not driving, and never ever look at your phone whilst driving. Another way of thinking about it (if you don't like the word ritual), is as a variant of the Alexander technique: whenever you notice that thing, consciously note that you noticed it, and emotionally reward yourself for doing so. I'm not sure where this fits on the scale of "outrageous quackery" to "blindingly obvious" but it seems to be news, and also useful, to fifteen year olds.
shalmanese 6y ago
Yes, there are defensive driving courses offered at most racing schools and they're generally a prerequisite for taking more advanced racing courses but are also pitched as a terminal course for people who simply want to improve their daily driving skills. They'll take you through some of the basic theory of safer driving and then take you out onto the track to practice some basic defensive maneuvers. People who take the course generally say that it has real, long term effects on their driving as it provides them a mental framework for how to evaluate traffic from a fundamentally defensive perspective and they find themselves practicing the same skills decades after they've taken the courses. I'm not aware of any long term, longitudinal studies on whether defensive driving courses decrease raw accident rates but any study would be tricky to do since people who self select for defensive driving courses are likely to have any number of confounds that would make observational studies less than clear.

yourapostasy 6y ago

Indeed, this is a "take my money", "I'll subscribe to your newsletter" kind of breakthrough that I would dearly like to see everywhere (and in myself!), not just in the context of driving cars.

dataduck 6y ago

I understand this was supposed to be sarcastic but I've been informally working on this for years. I have a technique which seems to work wonders with students but I haven't the resources to test it scientifically, so do with this information as you will. The technique is simple: ritually venerate the thing you wish to be more observant of, and never denigrate its value. So in the case of traffic stopping, have a thing that you do whenever you notice it (e.g. tap your braking foot), even while you're not driving, and never ever look at your phone whilst driving. Another way of thinking about it (if you don't like the word ritual), is as a variant of the Alexander technique: whenever you notice that thing, consciously note that you noticed it, and emotionally reward yourself for doing so. I'm not sure where this fits on the scale of "outrageous quackery" to "blindingly obvious" but it seems to be news, and also useful, to fifteen year olds.

shalmanese 6y ago

Yes, there are defensive driving courses offered at most racing schools and they're generally a prerequisite for taking more advanced racing courses but are also pitched as a terminal course for people who simply want to improve their daily driving skills. They'll take you through some of the basic theory of safer driving and then take you out onto the track to practice some basic defensive maneuvers. People who take the course generally say that it has real, long term effects on their driving as it provides them a mental framework for how to evaluate traffic from a fundamentally defensive perspective and they find themselves practicing the same skills decades after they've taken the courses. I'm not aware of any long term, longitudinal studies on whether defensive driving courses decrease raw accident rates but any study would be tricky to do since people who self select for defensive driving courses are likely to have any number of confounds that would make observational studies less than clear.