excerpts: chapter 4
Chapter 4: If It Were Any Closer, It Would Bite You!
Blind Spot #3: Not Noticing
Several months ago, I was arranging to pick up a friend at the airport. At the tail-end of our telephone conversation, she asked: “Oh, and what color is your car?” I hesitated, then murmured: “Just a second.” Figuring that I wasn’t sure which car I would be taking, she expected to hear me checking that out with my husband. But that wasn’t the question she overheard next. Instead, she was amazed to hear me call out: “Honey, what color is my car?”
Now, most people notice and remember the color of their cars without any particular effort. So the reaction of many people to this anecdote is to think: “How could she be so stupid?” How could anyone—except perhaps a color-blind person—have trouble remembering what color their car is? It’s an obvious feature, something I see everyday.
Or do I? Why do people “miss” noticing things that are obvious? Why is it that we can walk to a store three blocks from our home, repeating a route we’ve taken time and again, and yet notice a particular house for the first time? How is it that we can drive home from work and realize as we arrive at our front door that the entire ride is pretty much a blank in our minds?