A Visitor In My Shower
It was a scene from a horror movie. I opened the
shower door, stepped one foot in, and then glanced down to see this visitor in
my shower.
It was a scene from a horror movie. I opened the
shower door, stepped one foot in, and then glanced down to see this visitor in
my shower.
Given the quality of the scream that streamed forth I might consider an acting career in horror movies if selling software doesn’t work out.
And then when I was done I screamed again. This time for Hannah; or maybe you could say at Hannah. But I wasn't really screaming, I was laughing too hard.
The spider was a fake. It had been a gift in the trick-or-treat bags from Pizza Inn on Halloween. And Hannah had gifted it to me. Somewhere in mid-scream I had recognized the hoax, but once a scream starts it has to finish its course.
As I reflected on the experience, I realized it would take me more time to write about the exact thought sequence my mind went through to determine that the spider was a phony than it did for me to think it at the time. And there's good probability that I wouldn't be able to recall the details of how my mind so quickly determined that a teenager in my house had perpetrated a practical joke on me.
I had perceived horror followed by hilarity in something akin to the “blink of an eye.”
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book "Blink," my current reading material, introduces a decision-making concept he calls “thin-slicing."
He says that our minds have the ability to assimilate, process, and at the same time draw conclusions about all sorts of life situations in the “blink of an eye.” And sometimes, Gladwell says, our ability to absorb information, make judgments, draw conclusions, and finalize decisions are sometimes better with thin slicing than when we spend inordinate amounts of time gathering information and adopting formal decision making processes.
So I proved out Gladwell's premise in my own life last Saturday morning. I wonder if he's written any books on how to keep one step ahead of a teenage practical jokester.
Given the quality of the scream that streamed forth I might consider an acting career in horror movies if selling software doesn’t work out.
And then when I was done I screamed again. This time for Hannah; or maybe you could say at Hannah. But I wasn't really screaming, I was laughing too hard.
The spider was a fake. It had been a gift in the trick-or-treat bags from Pizza Inn on Halloween. And Hannah had gifted it to me. Somewhere in mid-scream I had recognized the hoax, but once a scream starts it has to finish its course.
As I reflected on the experience, I realized it would take me more time to write about the exact thought sequence my mind went through to determine that the spider was a phony than it did for me to think it at the time. And there's good probability that I wouldn't be able to recall the details of how my mind so quickly determined that a teenager in my house had perpetrated a practical joke on me.
I had perceived horror followed by hilarity in something akin to the “blink of an eye.”
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book "Blink," my current reading material, introduces a decision-making concept he calls “thin-slicing."
He says that our minds have the ability to assimilate, process, and at the same time draw conclusions about all sorts of life situations in the “blink of an eye.” And sometimes, Gladwell says, our ability to absorb information, make judgments, draw conclusions, and finalize decisions are sometimes better with thin slicing than when we spend inordinate amounts of time gathering information and adopting formal decision making processes.
So I proved out Gladwell's premise in my own life last Saturday morning. I wonder if he's written any books on how to keep one step ahead of a teenage practical jokester.
Posted: Fri - November 11, 2005 at 09:43 AM
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Published On: Sep 15, 2007 10:59 PM
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Published On: Sep 15, 2007 10:59 PM