Learning to notice things makes richer life

Capacity for curiosity & noticing things varies by person but can be grown bigger with effort and opportunity.

Wondering how a spider could weave a sheet of silk that defies gravity; stopping mid-stride to look with admiration at the shadow projected onto a bright white fence; seeing for the first time solar panels mounted on a narrow boat traveling an inland canal — what connects each of these (photo) moments of recognition in things of wonder, beauty, and changes in society is the habit of noticing the things occurring around you. Instead of assuming, expecting, or imagining that one’s surroundings are meaningless static background to one’s own plans for the day, by adopting a curiosity about what may be going on outside of one’s own mind helps to expand one’s scope of paying attention.

Taken too far, there is infinite possibility for fascination. Ignored entirely, there is very little room for looking at one’s surroundings with fresh eyes since no value, agency, or mystery is allowed. But in the wide middle ground between imagination’s oblivion at the one extreme and preoccupation with self at the other extreme there is a big range of variation in the capacity for curiosity and noticing things that a person grows up with. Starting with one’s own baseline of day-to-day interest and awareness of what is going on visibly (and invisibly), it should be possible to increase that capacity so that more interest and attention can be given to seeing wonder, beauty, and changes in things all around.

Growing up and gaining more and more experience of one’s world — both the natural and the social dimensions of things present, and the powers of language to articulate things that are not necessarily visible (feelings, processes, intentions, stories, memories and meanings) — typically a person increases his or her knowledge and sometimes wisdom with age. At the same time, growing older can also lead to assumptions and expectations that things will or should remain the same. With faster cycles of consumer product inventions and changing attitudes that accompany new forms of social relationships, things may or may not remain the same: if not exactly the same, then bearing a family resemblance to earlier patterns but now using different methods and materials.

Taking the analogy of an unfamiliar sport* or card game, novices may be able to follow along to a certain degree, but only proficient players can think a few steps ahead, and only the highest-ranking competitors will see the opportunities and obstacles with 360-degree vision and deep knowledge. This is true, too, of one’s own family traditions or one’s society and language overall: gradually gaining proficiency at the point of adulthood, a person is capable of operating responsibly and competently in most of life’s situations. Rare and traumatic moments, of course, few people are prepared for. So, working through those hard times feels much more like a foreign country where you neither fluently speak the language, nor know the places of danger or ways best leading to resolution.

Turning to the photos, above, a person with firmly set routines to navigate the day and the week, the summer season and the winter months, will notice the just things they need to make recurring decisions: current price of gas at various locations, the stock market rising and falling index numbers to gauge one’s retirement worth, current promotional pricing at a handful of restaurants that one likes to frequent, tomorrow’s weather forecast, today’s headlines, and so on. In this sense, the game where one is a player (as a consumer of products but also of ideas) and the society where one is functioning as an adult fully responsible for actions (and inactions) imposes certain reference points where one has leeway and choices to make. There are other situations where the law demands (or the court of public opinion expects) proper response at the right time and in the right way: prepare to stop after the traffic signal changes from green to yellow, pay before you leave the restaurant, say you are sorry if your actions cause harm, and so on. To an insider all this seems to come automatically, but to an outsider, even knowing the “rules of the game” there may be a lot more meaning going on that they do not notice; they are blind and deaf to what local residents see and know.

Thinking about these ingrained habits of seeing and thinking further, not only is there a lot going on in one’s head as an insider who is fluent in local routines that outsiders miss, but also the day-to-day patterns and preferences lead to a certain perspective on what is ordinary and requires no special noticing, paying attention, and curiosity about. In other words, most times in one’s day and year (and entire decades of the arc of one’s life course) there is a blanket of normality covering one’s waking consciousness and with this comes the expectation that things will be in the future as they have been today and as they have been in the past.

By contrast, there are circumstances that turn the assumption of normality on its head. One adopts (or is forced to adopt) an attitude of surprise, or exceptions to the patterns governing situations back at home, or strategies for sorting the ocean of unfamiliarity one may find oneself in. For example, times of disaster (human-caused or the kind from Nature) tend to suspend the rules and routines of normality. Similar of travel for business, study, or pleasure outside of one’s society, there are degrees of cultural difference that can produce disorientation when little of the home country reference points are present; or if they are somewhat present, then carrying different baggage than one is used to. An English speaker arriving in Japan with no prior training or expertise will instantly discover they are now functionally illiterate; unable to decipher most signs and conversations, too. Researchers who compare the time required to gain intermediate competence in a few dozen diplomatic languages taught to US government employees have observed that it is not the sound system or grammar or lettering that takes longest for Americans to master in the hardest languages offered (category IV: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, as well as Arabic). The hard part comes from being able to appreciate the social relationships and expectations that motivate native speakers.

This observation about ordinary awareness of one’s home ground and the attitude of alertness and curiosity that arises outside of one’s home society and language may offer some lessons about growing one’s capacity to notice things, even in one’s routine world of daily life. By transposing the “overseas” perspective to one’s own backyard, then some of the taken-for-granted services, products, procedures, and outcomes can be enjoyed with fresh eyes. As an example, if you appreciate the functioning system of stop lights and speed limit standards that reduce collisions, then by taking a perspective of somewhere lacking a working system or well-regulated set of speed limits, then the existing road safety engineering can be seen with great feelings of satisfaction and gratitude; two things not typically part of one’s daily commute. Or consider using experiences in a country without a reliable system of electricity supply as your reference point. From that point of view, the almost always flowing electricity of your own society no longer needs to be assumed as a given condition. And the fact that it does almost always function well allows you to feel satisfaction and gratitude. Little by little the things overlooked take on new meaning: running water that can be drunk from the tap without first decontaminating or filtering, hot water on demand, refrigeration (and air-conditioning; also heating, of course), personal automobiles, cohorts of medical professionals at all phases of lifecycle from training to semi-retirement with diverse subspecialties and digital communication of data. On and on, the ordinary no longer needs to be ignored for being unremarkable.

Rather than to take for granted the physical but also social and linguistic infrastructure, now one can pause long enough to feel satisfaction or pride, as well as gratitude for all the good things contributing to work and home-life wellness. Taking time to acknowledge things is one practice to expand one’s capacity to see and think outside one’s own narrow confines. Looking at the living things all around and how they work and reflect the passing seasons is another practice to locate and fixate upon things in wonderment. Noticing patterns of geometry, color, and juxtaposition is something fundamental in human brains. Often these noteworthy instances are fleeting and unseen by others. But being on the lookout for them by purposively looking around increases the odds of finding them by serendipity: expect to be surprised; be ready for a fateful conversation or observation. One result may be private moments engaged in beauty. An additional way to grow one’s capacity to pay attention to surroundings and to notice things more than before is with historical vision: seeing emerging or evolving organizations, movements, inventions, and ideas make an appearance is a way to mark the passing of years and generations by being aware of what is new and what is old, rather than to disregard these differing time scales.

Taken all together, these several methods help to grow one’s curiosity and capacity to notice things that others do not see. As a result of this greater capacity for awareness and significance, one’s own place in the universe gains deeper roots (more context), wider branches (far-seeing), and higher crown (able to connect surrounding parts into a full view). Carrying a camera or sketchbook can act as a prompt to pay attention, make a record of something noticed (wonderment, beauty, changing times), and possibly to share with others or to use as a prompt to one’s own reflections. But even without a means of recording the times when one stops with a sense that something is imminent, immanent, or is worth telling to others does exercise the muscle of seeing oneself in the everchanging surroundings. So noticing more things and more often, even if only for one’s own enlargement, can only make life richer.

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*Renato Rosaldo (b.1941) spends a few pages in the introduction [bottom of p. 21 ff] to his book about Ilongot (former) headhunting people some generations ago in the Philippines by using a baseball analogy: a fan will know the players, their habits and history, and the likely intentions of batter-strategy and pitcher-strategy that results in rising and falling moments of drama in the spectator experience. By contrast a newcomer to the game can memorize the rules of play and thus follow the sequence of events during the afternoon, but largely miss the tension created by the personalities, special abilities and tendencies, and other features adding meaning to each moment of play. Something similar happens with insiders versus outsiders to a culture like the Ilongot people’s: just studying the patterns and relationships will make sense of their dreams and histories. But to fully appreciate the meanings and intentions motivating each person, you need to know more than just “the rules.”