The Invisible Gorilla

There’s a famous experiment which is eye opening in many ways. Participants are asked to watch a video in which two teams, one in black shirts and one in white shirts, are passing a ball. The participants are told to count how many times the players in white shirts pass the ball. It’s not as easy as it sounds - have a try yourself.

How many passes did you count? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?

More than 50% of the participants missed the person in a gorilla costume, beating his chest, and walking away! even when it was right in front of their eyes. This is referred to as selective attention. In other words:

The world we see is the world we know.

Think about it. Around us there’s an incredibly complex world, with billions of people, and even more creatures of all species all around us, building and creating new things and ideas. Yet we only see what’s in front of our eyes. We don’t even see all 360 degrees around us, only a faction of that, especially if we’re focused on something. Family, friends and acquaintances who inform our views are likely to be in similar environments as us. For example, same city, jobs or industry, upbringing and culture. Thus they have similar interests and are unlikely to meaningfully fill our gaps. News media is filtered and often bias.

So if we think about it, we probably only see well under 1% of what’s really happening around us. Even things right in front of our eyes. This is profound. We’re often fixed on an opinion, or stressed about problem with no clear solution, but if we’re not seeing more than 99% of the world around us, how confident can we be with an opinion? How many solutions and opportunities are we missing around us?

You are not stuck in your job. You are not stuck in your town. You are not destined to end up like your brothers, sisters or friends.

Inform yourself. Always seek, and be open to, new ideas and opportunities. Life is boundless, we just need to seek it.