Being Observant
French chemist Louis Pasteur once said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” True enough. He might have added that it also favors the observant eye. Many obvious things wait to be seen, yet we never notice them. What color eyes does your father have? Does your mother part her hair on the left or the right? What is the pattern of the wallpaper in your dining room? How many of the houses on your street have white roofs??
Being observant is not merely an interesting quality that enlivens our days. Clear and sound thinking often depends on subtleties that are revealed only by close observation—in other words, by attentive seeing and hearing. If there are gaps in our seeing and hearing, then the perceptions on which we base our judgments are less likely to be complete and accurate. In addition, the keener our observation, the less likely we will be to commit to stereotypes, oversimplifications, and unwarranted assumptions.
善于觀察
法國(guó)化學(xué)家路易斯·巴斯德曾說(shuō)過(guò)：“機(jī)遇有利于有準(zhǔn)備的頭腦。”真的。他可能補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，這也有利于觀察的眼睛。許多顯而易見(jiàn)的事情等著我們?nèi)タ矗覀儚膩?lái)沒(méi)有注意到它們。你父親的眼睛是什么顏色的？你媽媽的頭發(fā)是在左邊還是右邊分開(kāi)？你餐廳壁紙的圖案是什么？你街上有多少房子有白色的屋頂？
觀察不僅僅是一種有趣的品質(zhì)，它使我們的生活充滿活力。清晰而健全的思維往往取決于只有通過(guò)密切觀察才能揭示出來(lái)的微妙之處-換句話說(shuō)，就是通過(guò)專注的觀察和傾聽(tīng)來(lái)表現(xiàn)出來(lái)。如果我們的視覺(jué)和聽(tīng)覺(jué)有差距，那么我們的判斷所依據(jù)的感知就不太可能是完整和準(zhǔn)確的。此外，我們的觀察越銳利，我們就越不可能對(duì)刻板印象、過(guò)度簡(jiǎn)單化和毫無(wú)根據(jù)的假設(shè)作出承諾。
