Selective Attention

Are we serial multi taskers? How much important information do we miss every day? In our jobs and our lives we get so focused on what’s in front of us, what we are supposed to think about, and what we need to do that it’s very easy to miss incredibly obvious things that are happening around us. If you don’t believe me,

take this test to count the number of balls the white shirted players pass back and forth.

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

Did you see what you missed?

Let’s have a look at what does professor Chabris believe

http://bigthink.com/videos/missing-the-200-pound-gorilla-in-the-room
It’s amazing isn’t it. Even though we think we are seeing reality and everyone is seeing the same things, our brains literally decide what we see and understand because of what we are thinking about. Are we missing great ideas as a result? Can we possibly understand what our customers are thinking? How do we relate to coworkers that see the world differently.

Do we even live in the same world together!?!
I think we need to constantly change our routines and our points of view – and gather people around us with different perspectives – in order to be creative, perceptive, and see opportunities and challenges better.
Here’s another video in which Daniel Simmons is talking about his research on the Invisible Gorilla at TedX