Get your Geek On

[kaitou]

So on my way to Japan and back I listened to the audiobook version of Joe Hallinan's book 'Why We Make Mistakes.' It's really interesting, all about the psychology and neruo-science of making mistakes, and obviously applies to my line of work. When I got back I picked up a paperback copy of the book and gave it to my boss to read. I think he's enjoying it, he quoted it at a few of my coworkers today, so that's a good sign.

I wrote the author an e-mail to tell him how much I enjoyed it, and to ask him if he had any advice on mitigating the kind of errors we see at work. (There's a chapter on the kind of mistakes that Airport Security makes, which is pretty much the same position an inspector is in) And he wrote back that he would call me some time this week! How exciting is that!?

Anyway, here's an interesting quiz I found on his site:

So how did you do? I only caught one thing myself. Some QC Engineer I am. Here's a nice version of the famous basketball test. I've read about this one too much for it to work on me, I wonder if I would have caught it without being prompted or not.

I just LOVE this stuff. It's amazing how much we don't notice. How much we really can't notice. It's just too much for our eyes and brains to handle.

Comments

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

You have to watch this Person swap experiment by Derren Brown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1aEqBaK3aM

It's just incredible what people will either not see or willingly disbelieve.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

... I caught three on the first one. The Roses to Lilies, the clock on the floor into I'm not sure and the butler's rolling pin to candlestick.

Was really confused too, because I couldn't figure out why they'd changed, until they asked if we'd caught the differences.

Counted 12 passes on the second one, but missed the random.

This is really cool! Thank you! *goes to check it out some more*

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

LOL I'm afraid I didn't do much better on the quiz. The creepiest replacement kind of test I've ever seen was where they replaced an interviewer interviewing a person live and they didn't notice they were talking to a different guy.

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

I caught three on the whodunnit one: the roses to lilies, the different clock and the different dead guy (and I only noticed that because I noticed the replacement guy's vest and thought, "That's a cool vest...wait...").

I love this kind of stuff. I wonder if being right- or left-brained has anything to do with who notices changes and who doesn't? I know it changes how we perceive things (right-brainers tend to observe things as they are, and left-brainers see things as their brain thinks they should look).