If you could somehow put a huge, irregular piece of ice into the ocean it would tilt and turn and sink and settle until only about 10% of it showed above the water line. The part we see looks important and it’s a great subject for photography, but it’s the part underneath that you might run your ship aground on.
This was the image that popped into my mind when I read Seth Godin’s post on Which Parts are you skipping? It’s short – you really should go read it for yourself. But if you’re offline, consider this quote.
The highlights of the baseball game are highlights largely because the rest of the game got you ready for them.
Not everything can be understood by looking at the list of bullet points. We need them and other summaries and lists so that we can keep current on a wider range of topics and happenings. When it comes to notetaking, they help us remember what we did not write down.
But sometimes it is important to consider a topic in greater detail because the subtleties and the parts we do not see at first glance teach, insire, and prod our minds in different ways than the highlights do on their own.
Whenever you accept someone else’s highlights you are accepting the filter they put on the information. Whenever you scan a document you are are accepting what your unconscious mind thinks is significant, not what might have been influential on greater reflection.
From time to time, consider approaching a situation or a passage of information that matters to you with more deliberation. Read all the words. In a face-to-face situation, take more time to listen to the pauses and the tone than you usually do.
If the parts in between are what lead to real change, as Seth suggests, then they are the parts that you need to feed your creation of unexpected connections or to identify unnoticed interrelationships.
Have you ever deliberately slowed down? What did you gain?
Image credit: Rghrous
Great post with a perfect illustration, Beth. I needed this encouragement to do that type of reading in a matter I’m working on now. The fruit is worth the time. I know it from past experience and too often find myself in haste these days.
Thanks, Elizabeth. I can get impatient with it, too. Sometimes I just want to know everything right NOW. Blogging about what I’m learning helps me slow down, too, because I have to think it over and process and reword and hopefully add something.