How many “f’s” are in the following paragraph:
“The necessity of training farmhands for first class farms in the fatherly handling of farm livestock is foremost in the minds of farm owners. Since the forefathers of the farm owners trained the farmhands for first class farms in the fatherly handling of farm livestock, the farm owners feel they should carry on with the family tradition of training farmhands of first class farms in the fatherly handling of farm livestock because they believe it is the basis of good fundamental farm management. Total number of f’s is………?” (The answer is at the end of the article.)
If you found less than the correct amount, you probably ignored the f’s in the word of. If you missed the count, you probably said, “Of course, it was right in front of my eyes the whole time”. Many times in life we see things and automatically know what we’re seeing without any cognitive processing whatsoever.
Who doesn’t recognize the famous coke logo?
Ordinarily we do not make the fullest use of our faculty to see. We are aware that we move through life looking at a tremendous quantity of knowledge, objects and scenes; and yet, we look but do not see. By the way, the logo above the article reads coca-coca not coca-cola.
PAY ATTENTION. Paying attention to the world around you will help you develop the extraordinary capacity to look at mundane things and see the miraculous. Really paying attention to what you see will enable you to develop a kind of binary vision where you perceive what others see but, you will notice something different as well.
Engineers in George Westinghouse’s heyday knew more than he did about natural gas, railroads and electricity. Yet, they looked but did not see. Westinghouse paid attention. He became intrigued with the ordinary water well and took it apart. He examined the separate parts, modified some and reassembled it into a way to transmit clean natural gas thereby creating the natural gas industry.
Your mind is lying in wait for some cue or suggestion that will initiate thinking about your problem in a different way. When you use analogies between your subject and a subject in another world you produce cues and hints that will make novel combinations and connections more likely. Philo Farnsworth=s interest in farming gave him the cue that led to television. One day, while sitting on a hillside in Idaho, he observed the neat rows in a nearby farm. The neat rows inspired the idea of creating a picture on a cathode ray tube out of rows of light and dark dots. He was 14 at the time, and the next year he presented the concept at a high-school science fair, and he also demonstrated the first working model of a television set when he was 21.
Estee Lauder was an obsessed young woman desperately trying to puff out her products. She paid attention to everything going on around her searching for an answer. What could make a breakthrough? What could make the difference? Is it product, distribution, marketing? Then she hit on her “gift with purchase” strategy, which she calls the highlight of her life. From that flash of genius, she created a marketing marvel valued at nearly $2 billion. Lauder, at 81, is still paying attention by sniffing out new fragrances and new products for her company.
An idea can be found anywhere. Maybe it’s up in the hills under the leaves or hiding in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it’s never found. But what you find by paying attention, whatever you find, is always part of the missing, and that in itself will lead to something. With paying attention comes intense interest, and after interest comes tiny truths and after tiny truths, comes passion and with passion comes a will to create.
Throughout the years mosquitoes have exhibited an odd behavior that was reported by many people from areas that were infested with this insect. Mosquitoes would somehow know when thunderstorms were being formed hours before they appeared. When mosquitoes sense a storm brewing their instinct to survive overrides their instinct to suck blood, they then stop biting and go to ground in search of lower vegetation and protection against the wind and rain.
Intrigued, Kurt Stoll, a Swiss electronic engineer went to an entomologist for an explanation of this behavior. He discovered that mosquitoes have a hair-like sensory organ known as a sensilla that detects the atmospheric electrical waves which are naturally produced by developing thunderstorms. He decided to see if he could create a mosquito repellent that would use their own genetics against them. He worked toward creating a portable device that could simulate the atmospheric waves that mosquitoes received as warning of a looming storm.
He created a wrist band that emits very weak atmospheric electrical waves that essentially convinces mosquitoes that a massive storm is coming and to immediately seek safety. The weak waves are virtually harmless to people and animals. This is a revolutionary solution to an age old problem brought about because one man paid attention to the behavior of mosquitoes.
Following is an exercise designed to help you improve your ability to pay pure attention to the world around you. This exercise was developed by Minor White who taught photography at MIT.
Select a photograph or picture that gives you pleasure. The more detailed the photo or picture the better. Get comfortable and relax. Set a timer or alarm for ten minutes. Look at the photograph or picture until the timer goes off without moving. Don’t move a muscle. Stay focused on the image. Do not allow your mind to free associate. Pay attention only to the photograph or picture in front of you. Concentrate only on the image before you. After the timer goes off, turn away from the image and recall your experience. Review the experience visually rather than with words. Accept whatever the experience is for what it is. After your review and your experience becomes kind of a flavor, go about your everyday work, trying to recall the experience whenever you can. You’ll begin to experience an intense awareness that you can find only by paying pure attention. Recall the experience frequently and recall it visually.
(The number of F’s is 37. This includes the last F in the last question at the end of the paragraph.)
For an effective brainstorming tool check out Michael Michalko’s Thinkpak.
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