Transcriber: isbaah pirwani Reviewer: Arthur Alves
Our frame of reference affects everything. We judge the world based
on our experiences at dinner the other night,
I observed a guy in his twenties with his Snapp cap on backwards.
He was hunched over his plate,
chewing with his mouth open and shoveling food into it,
as if his goal was not to taste what he was eating.
My thoughts went to judgment and then I realized.
I don’t know anything about him, nothing.
And I'm sure that if he observed me, he'd think all kinds of things,
many of which might be true, but then again, maybe not.
Our experiences to this point have given us a unique lens through which we view
and filter the world. We each develop expectations about how the world and
the people in it should be.
It is that which defines our perceptual bias
as humans were designed to stay alive.
We protect our physical being and we protect our psychological being.
Perhaps slightly insidiously,
We protect the schema or map of the world that we have constructed.
We’re willing to defend what We know
because our identities are tied to what We know.
We know what We know, and we’re drawn towards things that resonate with our
values, even if we're not fully conscious of doing so.
Because of this, We need to be deliberate if We’re to step away from what we
already know and presume about the world.
We can then be open to learning or trying something new.
When We judge someone or even ourselves.
We subconsciously seek confirmation and validation of our premise.
We’re good at something bad, right, wrong,
stupid, gifted and on and on.
We pick up on the things that validate this
and somehow ignore other information that might push against our beliefs.
That is, we automatically tune in to the things we expect.
Again, this is our perceptual bias.
The problem with perceptual bias is that not only do We bind ourselves to certain
norms, but We also attempt to hold others to
the norms we believe they should be held to.
Rosenthal's research back in 1963 showed us that the bias toward
an expected outcome influenced the way people engaged
and therefore actually created the outcomes that were expected.
Essentially, our beliefs affect our actions.
Those actions affect the way others respond to us,
and then, their responses reinforce our beliefs about them.
And so we act in a certain way.
We get validating feedback, and that cycle reinforces what we already know.
So, We engage in the world with a stronger bias. Where does that leave us?
Divided, separated. Isolated.
Presuming that growth and learning are desired, what's needed is a new mindstate,
an active state of mind that mandates a move to disrupt
our hidden perceptual biases.
We need to look at the world differently.
What if We deliberately pushed ourselves to become curious and to see
the situation the other person or ourselves differently?
Could We acknowledge that there might be something we’re missing?
Could We seek to fill in the unknown gap in the quest for more information? Yes.
And that is why a parallax perspective is needed.
Parallax comes from the Latin word parallaxus,
meaning change and your perspective.
How you look at something makes all the difference in how you react to it.
Try this for a second. If you're able just hold up one finger in front of your
face and look at it now, close one eye, open that eye and close the other one.
Now, shift back and forth a few times here.
Opening one eye while closing the other.
You'll notice that your finger or the background behind it jumps back
and forth as you change which eye is open and which eye is closed.
If you saw your finger and or the background jump back and forth,
you experienced a parallax shift.
Whether or not you're able to do the exercise,
recognize that you can take this concept into your everyday life.
The key here is to leverage the fact that you can see things differently.
And that then begs the question what else is there or what might I be missing?
Moving on the premise that there is more to explore about a situation,
a person or even yourself, and wielding the questions based in wonder,
you've stepped into a powerful position that of curiosity.
Curiosity is the key to seeing things from more than one point of view,
acknowledging that there is more than one point of view
and then, choosing to be curious and explore what that might be.
Both opens the world to you and brings you closer to others.
Remember that a parallax perspective is based on change
and perception when we cling tightly to the perception that we had,
we find evidence that maintains that bias.
And if We believe that other possibilities exist
and We engage in curiosity as a personal methodology, asking ourselves,
I wonder what else there is?
We remove this kind of ego ethno and social centric disconnect.
This act of curiosity opens the door to asking new questions
and yielding new insights.
In essence, curiosity deliberately invokes a parallax perspective.
It was Emerson who said that the mind once stretched by a new idea,
can never return to its original dimensions.
What would happen if We thought in terms of a parallax perspective
all the time, when We choose to live from a place of wonder
and curiosity about what more there might be,
We train ourselves to think in a way that expands our awareness and
as our awareness expands, we crave further expansion.
That is the antidote to perceptual bias.
There is one essential ground rule
or working agreement we each must make with ourselves.
Simply this We have to want to change the way we see the world.
Remember that no one comes to a debate looking to be persuaded about
the other side. And the good news is that deliberately choosing
a parallax perspective isn't a debate. Quite the opposite.
Being deliberate about seeking a parallax perspective opens
the world to you in ways you haven't yet imagined.
By actively pursuing an alternative view, any alternate view.
We invite the possibility of more, more information,
greater connection and an increase in personal power and certainly a new truth.
Your personal truth comes from experience
and that develops when you choose to expand your view of the world from
the way a guy eats his dinner to the way your finger or background jumps.
When you close one eye. We live with perceptual biases,
conscious and unconscious, which divide us.
All the while, we long to feel connected or a part of something,
we instinctively protect ourselves against people
and ideals that oppose what We cling to as our truth.
And yet each of us worldwide.
Each of us could expand our worldviews
and personal truths by being just that bit more deliberate about choosing
curiosity and employing the parallax perspective.
Assume there's more and explore what that might be.
What might be missing about this situation,
this person or myself more positively?
What more is there? Stay curious.
Employing curiosity as the keystone of
the parallax perspective disrupts perceptual bias and creates
the path person by person for how will
significantly connect humanity.