Chilean miner Edison Peña, who ran constantly when he was trapped in the San José mine, ran the New York marathon today.
In the mine he ran at least 10 kilometers a day, taking between 10 and 12 laps underground, with heavy rubber boots with steel tips. Peña said: “I ran inside the mine … I wanted to give a message to everybody”.
Peña was invited by the organizers of the marathon to be an honored guest, but he asked to participate instead.
"Our attitude towards what has happened to us in life is the important thing to recognize. Once hopeless, my life is now hope-full, but it did not happen overnight. The last of human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, is to choose one's own way."
This video shows how narrow your focus can be. You'll have some fun, and what is revealed at the end is surprising. So pay attention as you watch the video. See what you notice.
It was done by pychologist, magician, and author Prof Richard Wiseman. Click here for background information about this video and the psychology behind it.
In part 1 of this post, we examined Change Blindness and how we can miss incredibly obvious things (right in front of us) if our attention is focused elsewhere.
In an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource.
Think how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
Here are two books written by Professor Wiseman. The first is called Quirkology, and it is about discoving big truths in small things. The second is called 59 Seconds, and it is about little things that make big differences.
This video shows how narrow your focus can be. You'll have some fun, and what is revealed at the end is surprising. So pay attention as you watch the video. See what you notice.
It was done by pychologist, magician, and author Prof Richard Wiseman. Click here for background information about this video and the psychology behind it.
In part 1 of this post, we examined Change Blindness and how we can miss incredibly obvious things (right in front of us) if our attention is focused elsewhere.
In an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource.
Think how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
Here are two books written by Professor Wiseman. The first is called Quirkology, and it is about discoving big truths in small things. The second is called 59 Seconds, and it is about little things that make big differences.
Even if you are not a baseball fan, here's a statistic that jumps out and demands attention.
When the Texas Rangers competed against the New York Yankees, it marked the greatest disparity in raw dollars between payrolls in the history of playoff baseball, at $152 million.
In addition, there are some fun facts for you to impress your friends. For example, the Rangers could triple every current player's salary, sign Mark Teixeira away from the Yankees, and still have a lower payroll.
Even if you are not a baseball fan, here's a statistic that jumps out and demands attention.
When the Texas Rangers competed against the New York Yankees, it marked the greatest disparity in raw dollars between payrolls in the history of playoff baseball, at $152 million.
In addition, there are some fun facts for you to impress your friends. For example, the Rangers could triple every current player's salary, sign Mark Teixeira away from the Yankees, and still have a lower payroll.
The Q3 2010 IntraLinks Deal Flow Indicator™ (DFI) was just released and reports a 38 percent increase in global M&A deal activity in Q3 2010 versus Q3 2009. In the last quarter, deal activity is up nine percent compared to Q2 2010, a 68 percent increase from the Q1 2009 low.
Results show six straight quarters of growth in M&A deal volume, with a 68 percent increase from Q1 2009
The overall positive trends are consistent with the following factors in the marketplace:
General improvement and stability in the market
Impending tax environment changes and stockpiles of committed capital have provided the return of private equity buyers and sellers
Reduced strategic buyer fear of “double dip” recession resulting in more exploration of opportunities to supplement slow organic growth prospects and enter new markets.
The Q3 2010 IntraLinks Deal Flow Indicator™ (DFI) was just released and reports a 38 percent increase in global M&A deal activity in Q3 2010 versus Q3 2009. In the last quarter, deal activity is up nine percent compared to Q2 2010, a 68 percent increase from the Q1 2009 low.
Results show six straight quarters of growth in M&A deal volume, with a 68 percent increase from Q1 2009
The overall positive trends are consistent with the following factors in the marketplace:
General improvement and stability in the market
Impending tax environment changes and stockpiles of committed capital have provided the return of private equity buyers and sellers
Reduced strategic buyer fear of “double dip” recession resulting in more exploration of opportunities to supplement slow organic growth prospects and enter new markets.
Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous. The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.
Test Your Awareness.
Watch this video and count how many passes the team in white makes.
This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.
Try to ignore the black team. Just focus on the white team, and see if you can accurately count how many times they pass the ball.
OK, click the video to do it now.
Did you get the right answer? Even though I knew what to expect, the result or effect was surprising.
By the way, there is a newer version of this video, here.
Think how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
Change Blindness.
Missing an invisible gorilla or a moon-walking bear may seem strange. However, the next experiment may be more surprising.
This video demonstrates "change blindness". In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter who bent under a counter was replaced by a different person.
If you liked that, here is a version done by Derrin Brown. It is quite clever and worth watching. It was even more surprising to me because it was done in public with "real people". How did people not notice a white male switching with a black guy (or an asian female) in the middle of a conversation?
Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.
Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next.
More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe. Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.
Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).
