Disclaimer: I had a thought about "us seeing only what requires less effort" 2 days ago, the story in the second part of the article. The ideas are with me for some time. Science talks about this also and I found explanations in different books/ courses in the last couple of years. The result is what I disseminated from all those resources and felt is applying to myself
Hypothesis
- Our brain has to work, a lot, to link all new information in an usable way. And by default he is smart and lazy (as good programmers are) and he prefer to user the resources for survival purpose, ignoring the not important things.
- We live in a very dinamic world, surrounded by new stuff every day. This level of excitation would be deadly for our brain if he would have to process everything. So he doesn't. He skips most of the new (exception the ones considered threat and basic needs as food or possibility of reproduction) and reiterates what he already knows for a lower energy waste.
- The reason why is so easy for us to judge others is legitime from our mind perspective. We see things differently and we are always right so they must be wrong.
- When we are tired or our brain focus ability decreases this effect is more visible (for the others, not for us). So I would suggest to visit a new place when you feel refreshed and with a relaxed mind. Leaving in a holiday when we are tired will require an initial sleep period to recharge and only after we'll be able to enjoy the surroundings.
If you want to enjoy more proofs of the brain's way to create shortcuts check the below from AsapSCIENCE:
"An electric toothbrush is not a toothbrush" - quote by my brain
Monday we came back from the see. As the sun was powerful in the last day on the beach I had some neurons burned also and forgot in Constanta the toothbrushes.
When I wanted to use it, it was already quite late with no open store around. I was tired and grumpy as in Bucharest it was terribly hot and I wanted back on the seashore not at work. I gave up brushing my teeth and went to bed.
The second day, in the morning, my boyfriend mode fun of me as I had right in my face, near the toothpaste, my electric brush. I don't like it and usually I prefer the normal one so my brain was ignoring it completely even when I stood in front of it feeling nervous that I have no solution for my problem.
What are my conclusions?
- Life is great and little things like this one make me feel human.
- It's hard not to judge so I should judge less the ones that judge the others.
- My brain deserves an extra hour of sleep to work properly. Until he would get it, I deserve his "revenge".
In the end, a test to check you've watched the clip:
How many dots do you see in the above image? Waiting for your answer in comments.