But the flipside of focus is a vast blindness. You can’t have one without the other. Which might explain a lot. It’s a strong argument for widespread use of drugs like weed and shrooms.
Science and engineering are iterative processes. Written language is absolutely key because it allows for asynchronous communication. This facilitates people building on the work of others, even work that was done years, decades, or centuries previously.
Seems like you’ve combined two ideas for no reason.
I can agree with “focus on one thing, miss the rest” but I don’t think it’s inherently human. If one of my cats has found something to stalk, they become hyper focused and pretty much oblivious to anything else happening around them. Other animals’ ears will perk up as they try to find the source of a sound and determine if it is predator or prey.
We’re certainly smarter than other animals, but is it really because of focus or just more mental ability?
Yes. Also, what does this have to do with shrooms and weed?
It might actually be the oposite. An ancient human trying to dig a hole with their hands got bored or frustrated by the task and started using a stick to make it easier. Whereas something like a dog will keep focused on digging that hole until its exhausted or got what it was after.
So you’re thinking that boredom, and possibly abandonment of the project, is what delivered the insight? And too much focus would inhibit this revelation.
Hmm. Interesting point.
Not boredom or project abandonment, but our ability to actively think of ways to improve the way we do things. Figuring out tools is a huge deal.
But also, the ability to sweat is a large part of why we’re the dominant species. We literally jogged animals to death. That, and the ability to use fire and cook our food which makes the nutrients more bioavailable so we didn’t have to work so hard to stay fed, and could devote extra energy to things other than survival.
Generally, too much focus on something is not a great thing. For example, have you ever spent a lot of time figuring out a problem, only for someone to come along and point out the solution that’s been staring you in the face the whole time?
I’d also like to add working together helped us succeed. Some humans would hunt while others tended fires, weaved baskets, prepared food and other tasks. Splitting that labor and skill across the group let the whole group benefit from it.
I don’t know man, have you seen an animal try to fit into a hole in a cage/fence/wall/door when they could’ve easily walked around it?
Ya I was thinking similarly. So I modify my theory from “great focus” to “great focus of a specific type” : focus on thoughts.
You don’t focus blindly on your feet and invent stuff. You watch someone else do things and you copy what they do. You are standing on a very large pyramid of hobbits. The big brain is mainly to remember what everyone else has figured out years ago.
You can have many shower thoughts, and most of them will not work out. But don’t stop having them, because eventually you will stumble upon something of value. Then you get to tell your grand-children, and they will listen and copy what you did.
Oh right back at you
You have convinced me sir and im out to get some weed and shrooms.
ooh get me an infused chocolate bar, please 😁
the argument wasn’t the only thing that was strong!
We haven’t discovered who controls the seabed yet
I don’t understand. Are we talking Poseidon?
Didn’t aquaman overthrow him during the whale uprising?
Talk for yourself.
How many humans do you know? When I was a teacher I had to shift my lesson every 10 to 15 mins. Asking them to write a researched 5 page paper was way for fucking hard.
Give them a nice videogame or some porn. That’ll make their focus shine.
Are you suggesting that other animals are less capable of attention focus? Because I share that experience.
Hmmm. Good question. Because I’ve seen cats focus like crazy.
Maybe it isn’t focus so much as a certain locus of focus : thoughts. We’re really good at focusing on thoughts.
Focus is inherently reductive. I mean, your perspective shrinks.
Given a dozen things, focus on one. This ignores the other 11 and brings a great depth and clarity to your view of the one.
In the depth and clarity you see the one in greater detail. What was simple is now a complex. A new dozen things.
Now focus on one of those…
And so on. Shrinking smaller and smaller.
The ignored world disappears and is forgotten. How far have you come in this process? It’s a good question.
