Selective Perception

Today was not a good day. I made a mistake which cost money and effort. The victims of my mistake tell me that they had to dedicate time of their lives to correct it, and that they don’t feel good, that they feel angry because my mistake made them “look bad to their bosses.” I worry: What are the consequences of my mistake?

None serious.

Maybe someone had to spend a little more time at their job, paid of course, and maybe someone had to spend a little more time doing things they enjoy (like gossiping about other people’s problems), but nothing more. To alleviate the residual feeling of failure a little, I go to my favorite “taqueria” and order my favorite dishes. Groucho Marx said that “I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.”

There are a lot of people here, they argue about many things, they get excited and they say a lot of things. For me it is noise, except when they say something that is key: “don’t lose your capacity for wonder.”

Why did my brain decide to listen to that and nothing else?

Because 3 years ago I wrote just that to a group of people who were about to occupy our new office: “don’t lose your capacity for wonder.” I wanted to inspire them, I wanted to make them see what I saw and give everything for an ideal that was not theirs. What nonsense. Who could give everything for an ideal that was not theirs?. Maybe what I wanted to say was that they should gave everything for an ideal that was theirs and that was the same as mine at that moment, but I couldn’t express it. Yes, maybe that was it.

Anyway, I hear those phrases, only those. In front of me, a group of friends say, “I just asked for my work schedule to be flexible” or “I only ask for legal things.” Why does everyone ask for things that are legal? Why does everyone give everything for the ideals of “the law”, if the law is just people trapped in metal buildings doing everything to “not look bad to my bosses” ?

I receive many emails a day, but one of them (selective perception), catches my attention, says: “Inflexion Software is a winner for Clutch’s 2023 KISSFLOW, Product Design, and Prototype Design Awards!” What catches my attention is “Product Design”. There were so many products that we tried to design and so many that we did design and so many that we didn’t design. And today they gave us an award for that. They gave us an award for an ideal.

When in a multitude of noises you hear only a few things, know that those things are being filtered by you, your brain is deciding to see the world with a self-imposed filter due to what has happened to you. Strive then to listen to what your brain decides to omit, that is where everything that has not happened to you is, and therefore, what can change the course of your existence.