Opening Your Eyes Delivers 40% of Your Perception, The Rest Is From Your Memories or Patterns

Lately I have working on software for operations and part of what hit me is this point from Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull.

Pete Docter’s ambitious film that would eventually become known as Inside Out. During the intensive research phase of the film, Pete was surprised to hear from a neuroscientist that only about 40 percent of what we think we “see” comes in through our eyes. “The rest is made up from memory or patterns that we recognize from past experience,” he told me.

Animators have been trained to be observant— they know that viewers subconsciously register even the most subtle motions and that those, in turn, trigger recognition. If animators want a character to reach for something to their left, they anticipate that a split-second earlier by having the character move ever so subtly to the right. While most people aren’t aware of it, this is what the brain expects to see— it’s a tell, if you will, that signals what’s to come. We can use that tell to guide the audience’s eyes wherever we want them to look. Or conversely, if we want to surprise people, we can leave it out, making the unforeseen motion more startling. In Toy Story 2, for example, when Jessie talks about her fears, she twists one of her braids around her finger. Seeing this little motion, you sense her state of mind, perhaps without even knowing why. The meaning in that simple action is supplied by the audience , though —by their own experiences and emotional intelligence.

Catmull, Ed; Wallace, Amy (2014-04-08). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Kindle Locations 2767-2776). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Here is the movie that Pete Docter was researching for.

Inside Out

U.S. Release Date: June 19, 2015

From the tepuis of South America to a monster-filled metropolis, Academy Award®-winning director Pete Docter has taken audiences to unique and imaginative places. In 2015, he will take us to the most extraordinary location of all - inside the mind of an 11-year-old named Riley. 

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city,
house and school.

Director:  Pete Docter
Co-Director: Ronnie del Carmen
Producer:  Jonas Riveras

Big Flaw of Keeping Everything in Your Head, Your Brain Hides your Blinds Spots

There are some people out there who believe if they were in charge then all things would be right as they know in their head what are the right things that need to be done.  This can occur in design, construction, operations and so many other areas.  What is really crazy is when you scale up the ideas in a person’s head the right way and underlings bow down in obedience.

I think this could explain why so many things in the data center world just don’t look right to people who objectively review what others have done.

Check out this Psychology Today article on problems on what your mind sees.

Our perception of the world is like a telegram with every other word missing. We get the gist of things, while our minds fill in the missing pieces. Sometimes our minds get it right; sometimes they are spectacularly wrong.

How many times have you run into this social situation?

For example, have you ever assumed that someone was upset with you because his or her behavior seemed cold or distant, then later discovered that their behavior had nothing to do with you?

We assign personalities to people that help us understand and predict their behavior. Cognitive psychologists call them schemas. When a person's behavior violates our schema, the mind is always at the ready with a quick and easy explanation: Uncle Marty forgot my birthday. Clearly he is angry with me.

From a mind's point of view, the most sensible explanation is the one that ensures our safety. If a mind assumes that Uncle Marty is angry, then we will feel compelled to respond, perhaps by repairing the relationship or distancing ourselves from it. ...Gosh, I better figure out why Uncle Marty is angry. Or, ...Screw Uncle Marty. I never liked him anyway.

 The good data center people know they have blind spots and they build a team that reduces the impact.  Some data center teams do the opposite and build a team that follows their vision.  I think the management consultants have blown up people’s egos too much many times to convince they need vision.

How many managers have failed because their vision had too many blind spots?

Confusing Abstract and Concrete makes it hard to figure out things

I had conversation with a mechanical engineer from the East Coast who worked for years on buildings.  I am an industrial engineer from the West Coast who worked for years on software.  We were chatting about some things I am working on and he was providing feedback.  The conversation was good in that it got me thinking about how different people will look at the same situation, identify different problems, and then take different actions.

This took me down the path of thinking of Abstract vs. Concrete.

The abstract/concrete distinction has a curious status in contemporary philosophy. It is widely agreed that the distinction is of fundamental importance. And yet there is no standard account of how it should be drawn.

Reflecting I can think of so many conversations that confused people because i was explaining abstract ideas and the listener was hearing concrete things.  Part of working on software is you get used to working in abstract, and then shift phases to the concrete when need be.  Part of the challenge of user interfaces is some users favor abstraction others favor concretism.

Going back to the conversation I realized that the user interface we created favors a concretism user, the use of the system by analyst, managers, engineers, and others who consume the data are people who can think in the abstract and understand the value of concrete.

Ironically part of what we were discussing is the process tracking in the pouring of concrete.  Now, I am more confused.  The abstraction of processes to pour concrete vs. the concretism of the concrete pour.

News in the DC News, Did Yevginey Sverdlik change jobs?

A friend asked if I had seen a datacenterknowledge post.  i hadn’t .  Long time ago I used to follow what Matt Stansberry wrote, but now he is an Uptime Institute.  I used to follow Kevin Heslin, but he is now at Uptime Institute.  Another person I used to follow is Yevginey Sverdlik looks like he is at datacenterknowledge.  At least he has two posts that started with the one my friend sent.

Scott Noteboom: Technology Trapped in Real Estate Prison

BY YEVGENIY SVERDLIK ON APRIL 29, 2014

Who is Yevgeniy? He is, was...

Yevgeniy Sverdlik

Regional Editor, North America, at DatacenterDynamics

San Francisco Bay Area

Media Production

And now he his two posts at DatacenterKnowledge.

I was just in LV with 130 other data center thought leaders.  I wasn’t in town for the data center conference and neither where most of the others. I’ll write another post on what we were in town for in a day or two.

I did run into a data center friend in the Caesar’s Forum shop area who I have had the pleasure of watching their software service grow and he was at data center conference in LV.  I asked him how the show was.  One of his presentations was good, the other he had maybe 25 people in the room.  Asked him the keynote was.  He said it was 1 1/2 long and had little substance.  That seemed strange for a keynote.  Then I saw the point that Yevgeniy wrote about.

He said he was trained by Apple not to talk about anything you were doing until you had something great to talk about, and has decided to keep things under wrap at LitBit until the time is right.

Ohh, that’s why the keynote had little substance. 

Knowing people and their perspectives allows you to better interpret what they write.  

Lessons from our Dad, Example Bob Hoskins Daughter Shares 11

Bob Hoskins has passed away and his daughter shares 11 lessons from her Dad.

Out of all the lessons #4 is the one that I like.

4) Don’t worry about other people’s opinions. Everyone’s a critic, but ultimately what they say only matters if you let it. Don’t believe your own press. People can just as easily sing your praises as they can tear you down. Don’t waste your time on things you can’t change. Let it slide off you like water off a duck’s back. -

See more at: http://hautehoskins.com/2014/04/30/rosa-14/#sthash.d95izmqk.dpuf