Yes, I know, Grant McCracken again. But the man is so full of insights, stimulating ideas and stuff to make you think. This time he is talking about his experience of talking to a group of planner and clients at Energy BBDO in Chicago:
“…I found myself telling these young planners about the time I sat beside Marshall Sahlins, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, as he read one of my papers. Professor Sahlins was traveling at speed through my paper, not because it was well written but because not even bad writing could slow him down. Suddenly, he stopped absolutely dead in his tracks and said, ‘hm, I wonder why that is.’
I was watching a very smart man acknowledge the limits of understanding. You could almost hear him thinking, ‘why can’t I think this?’ This is the secret of noticing. Spotting things that defy expectation, things that don’t ‘compute.’ The temptation for the rest of us is to ‘fake the results’ and assimilate the anomalous to existing categories. Good noticers are fearless noticers.
Once we notice, anthropological or plannerly things can happen. It is not too late for us decide that what looks like something is really nothing, in Sahlins’ case merely an artifact of a student’s rhetorical incompetence. But we can also decide that the puzzle is genuine. Now noticing leads to the possibility of insight and this will engage the redeployment of old ideas or, more remarkably, the creation of new ideas. Potentially, every puzzle is stowaway with mutiny in its heart.
The anthropological, the Sahlinsian lesson: Notice everything and pay attention to things that puzzle. Pay attention to things that demand your attention and then refuse your understanding. Pay attention to the failure of attention…”
So, in my slightly hectoring way, I urge you to read this and then to explore his site in detail going back over the years. I have all sorts of things I would quarrel with him about, but he has a mind worth engaging with and devoting some time and thought to do so is likely to be richly rewarded.
One thought on “Why can’t I think this?”
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clip snippet, “Pay attention to the failure of attention…”
I’ve noticed while teaching or telling stories that folks quickly respond to the feeling of learning and that feeling isn’t always in the head.
Some call it ‘information overload’.
I noticed in myself that the feeling occurs only when I am, indeed, learning. Some excess has happened. My mind sucks energy from wherever it can. I may feel instantly overwhelmed but I am simultaneously learning, or at least gathering information.
Thus,
information overload
equals
information retrieval
Hoping all is well, and that your vigorous blog continues its strong and good contribution.
Best,
Brian
I posted your ‘why can’t I think this’.
http://brianhayes.com/2007/03/information-overload-equals-information.html