Pay attention to what is funny, strange or odd. Sacrifice your own comfort so that you can go out and take a look around.

To know a person, you must understand them within their world.

Paying attention is a crucial skill, but most people forgot how it is to pay attention, to observe, and to listen - because of the distraction surrounding us.
In this book, philosopher and entrepreneur, Christian Madsbjerg shares stories and tools to help generate insights about human behaviour and the world.

How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Most of us are looking at the wrong places and at the wrong things. Our attention is on what is happening on the foreground. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Stop listening to what people say, and pay attention to how they organise themselves in space and in time. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">With these building blocks of observation as your guide, you can pull the scrim off your everyday life. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">The routine of meetings, daily check-ins or your relationships at home with family are wide open for your new observational approach. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Set out not to make up your mind, but to watch and listen. </li></ul>

How To Look

The best observers are thoughtful and rarely rush to conclusions. They are also highly organised and are driven not by their opinions, but by what they see.

Perception does not happen just inside us; we change what we see to reflect who and where we are in the world.

Everything you need to know is already out there waiting for you to see it. It will take time but you'll soon find it is worth it.Leave your calendar free and unscheduled. Listen for the social silence. Wait for what matters the most in the world : a moment of insight. After an insight, everything else is possible. Everything, really.

Work like a bird.
The falcon spend most of its days in a meditative preparations for brief and intense period of activity.
Instead of using your time to chase after myths about how creativity works, do some direct observations.
Immerse yourself in the context of what you hope to understand.

Get away from your screens, turn off your notifications, go out into the wild of reality and look around. Let go of all filters - clichés, conventions, color corrections, whatever they may be. Try to pay attention to the simple act of seeing. "To the things itself."What will appear before you?

Profound and grounding. Very interesting read that gives me a sense of groundedness. I am reminded to observe neutrally and on the importance of insight as part of our natural instinct to act on something, instead of being driven by fleeting emotions in the name of creativity. Love how this read makes me feel balanced somehow. Insightful indeed. 

A powerful exploration of how we pay attention that will transform the ways we connect with one another – at home, at work, and beyond.   Paying attention is a crucial human skill, yet many of us have forgotten how to listen carefully and observe intentionally. Deluged by social media and hobbled by the increasing social isolation it fosters, we need to rediscover the deeply human ways we connect with others.  Christian Madsbjerg, a philosopher and entrepreneur, understands this dilemma. To counteract it, he began a course at The New School in New York City called Human Observation, which lays out the ways that we can learn to pay attention more effectively. The course has been hugely popular since its inception, with hundreds of students filling waiting lists. In Look, Madsbjerg sets out the key observational skills needed to show how we can recapture our ability to pay attention. Drawing from philosophy, science, the visual arts, and his own life, he offers both practical insights and a range of tools for experiencing the world with greater richness and texture. The result is a dynamic approach to rethinking observation that helps all of us to see with more empathy, accuracy, and connection to others.

CHRISTIAN MADSBJERG

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