4 ms·

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

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 about it consciously. Something completely wild is what my 3 year old sees. A few days ago I was stopped at a red light and he said "daddy, what are all these arrows?" My first response was "what arrows?" Then I saw the arrows on a sign that explained the intersection. Then I saw the arrows on the overhead exit sign. Then I saw the ones drawn on the lanes itself to show which ones can turn and which ones go straight. Then I saw the one-way street sign. Then I saw the red arrow on the traffic light. And probably a bunch more other stuff, including my blinker signal. So at the instant he asked me about arrows, I was consciously aware of 0 arrows, while in reality there were like 12 in our field of view. Now obviously this is because I've been driving for a long time and I don't need to be consciously aware of the arrows to process their information. But it also tells you how much we might omit / filter out because our minds don't think it's worth surfacing to conscious attention.

befictious 3y ago
What a pithy example of the human experience. I love this slice of life vignette. I would argue, even better said than the blog post.
- Zancarius 3y ago
  Rather apropos, you explained precisely something I felt when I read your OP's comment (but, humorously, did not consciously notice). I loved it, but couldn't articulate why. It hit too close to home. I pictured driving down the road through town, the "turn only" lane indicators painted on the asphalt, the wash of signage, lights, traffic cones—the background noise of our civilization that provides passive information we've grown so familiar with it fades out of our vision. Thank you both for this! Love it!
- xyzelement 3y ago
  Just want to say - this comment means a lot. I thought the experience with my kid and the arrows was really poignant for me and I am glad I could get it across.
stavros 3y ago
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 that I didn't know what to process and what to just ignore. Sure, knowing what to notice is good, but knowing what you can safely ignore so you can free up bandwidth for processing the useful information is critical.
- pixl97 3y ago
  Human mental/optical bandwidth is insanely limited, when you see this playing out it makes you wonder how much of the world you actually see. The NOVA episode 'Human Brain: Perception Deception' really shows well how much we don't see https://youtu.be/HU6LfXNeQM4?si=KiQHNLNziNU6TA4a&t=535 https://youtu.be/HU6LfXNeQM4?si=KiQHNLNziNU6TA4a&t=535
- leetrout 3y ago
  > but I didn't know what to ignore Yep! This is key to a lot of things. We build up tacit knowledge which influences this ignorability in multiple facets of our lives.
- dylan604 3y ago
  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!
- 3PS 3y ago
  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.
KittenInABox 3y ago
> 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 the go-to-guy for if anything broke. I figure stuff like that works the same way: at least when I was growing up it was ok for me to be a bit lackadaisical with my living quarters whereas my sister was considered filthy for leaving a makeup brush unwashed too long.
- xyzelement 3y ago
  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.
- 1auralynn 3y ago
  Ah yes, the "SEP field" from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which makes things invisible (Someone Else's Problem)
slifin 3y ago
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
- resolutebat 3y ago
  That's only because you can't smell the horse shit. New York City alone had 4 million pounds of the stuff deposited daily.
  - xattt 3y ago
    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-get-ready-to-schmooze/article_6a34d0c6-3783-5834-92a4-ff834e5a53c7.html https://www.thestar.com/life/want-to-rent-on-toronto-islands...
cooper_ganglia 3y ago
Really good example. I try to do this regularly around me. Take stock of the small things. It's almost meditative, although not quite. More just a intentional consciousness of and concentration on the world around me. There's a strange song I heard that talks about noticing things like that and just considering them. It's called My Dog's Eyes by Zammuto. There's a line towards the end that says, "These were children who hadn't yet lost their sense of wonder.", and to me, that beautifully encapsulates what I want to do: Maintain that child-like sense of wonder for everything in the world for as long as I can!
hotnfresh 3y ago
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.

befictious 3y ago

What a pithy example of the human experience. I love this slice of life vignette. I would argue, even better said than the blog post.

Zancarius 3y ago
Rather apropos, you explained precisely something I felt when I read your OP's comment (but, humorously, did not consciously notice). I loved it, but couldn't articulate why. It hit too close to home. I pictured driving down the road through town, the "turn only" lane indicators painted on the asphalt, the wash of signage, lights, traffic cones—the background noise of our civilization that provides passive information we've grown so familiar with it fades out of our vision. Thank you both for this! Love it!
xyzelement 3y ago
Just want to say - this comment means a lot. I thought the experience with my kid and the arrows was really poignant for me and I am glad I could get it across.

stavros 3y ago

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 that I didn't know what to process and what to just ignore. Sure, knowing what to notice is good, but knowing what you can safely ignore so you can free up bandwidth for processing the useful information is critical.

pixl97 3y ago
Human mental/optical bandwidth is insanely limited, when you see this playing out it makes you wonder how much of the world you actually see. The NOVA episode 'Human Brain: Perception Deception' really shows well how much we don't see https://youtu.be/HU6LfXNeQM4?si=KiQHNLNziNU6TA4a&t=535 https://youtu.be/HU6LfXNeQM4?si=KiQHNLNziNU6TA4a&t=535
leetrout 3y ago
> but I didn't know what to ignore Yep! This is key to a lot of things. We build up tacit knowledge which influences this ignorability in multiple facets of our lives.
dylan604 3y ago
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!
3PS 3y ago
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.

KittenInABox 3y ago

> 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 the go-to-guy for if anything broke. I figure stuff like that works the same way: at least when I was growing up it was ok for me to be a bit lackadaisical with my living quarters whereas my sister was considered filthy for leaving a makeup brush unwashed too long.

xyzelement 3y ago
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.
1auralynn 3y ago
Ah yes, the "SEP field" from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which makes things invisible (Someone Else's Problem)

slifin 3y ago

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

resolutebat 3y ago
That's only because you can't smell the horse shit. New York City alone had 4 million pounds of the stuff deposited daily.
- xattt 3y ago
  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-get-ready-to-schmooze/article_6a34d0c6-3783-5834-92a4-ff834e5a53c7.html https://www.thestar.com/life/want-to-rent-on-toronto-islands...

cooper_ganglia 3y ago

Really good example. I try to do this regularly around me. Take stock of the small things. It's almost meditative, although not quite. More just a intentional consciousness of and concentration on the world around me. There's a strange song I heard that talks about noticing things like that and just considering them. It's called My Dog's Eyes by Zammuto. There's a line towards the end that says, "These were children who hadn't yet lost their sense of wonder.", and to me, that beautifully encapsulates what I want to do: Maintain that child-like sense of wonder for everything in the world for as long as I can!

hotnfresh 3y ago

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.