Chapter 89: On Focus and Insight

Source: https://www.facebook.com/100063294665283/posts/747739477345868/

[James Origin and Today] Chapter 89 - [Talk about Concentration and Insight] (12/12/2023)

Hello teacher

I remember that a few weeks ago, the teacher talked about Lao Gao’s film about life and luck. I later read a book called "The Science of Luck", which mentioned an experiment that made me a little confused about the balance between concentration and insight, so I wanted to ask the teacher for his thoughts.

This experiment is like this: A research team recorded a video of a basketball game and asked the participants to continue counting the number of players wearing jerseys of different colors during the video. After the experiment, many people counted the number of players wearing jerseys of different colors correctly; however, when the research team asked them: "Did you notice that a person wearing a gorilla appeared during the game?" Their answer was no, because they were too focused on counting and did not even notice the events that ordinary people obviously noticed. However, when the book talks about the necessary conditions for successful people, many people will say "focus and hard work." This makes me very confused. Don't these people who focus on counting achieve "concentration"? But they missed the opportunity to find luck (the gorilla). So should we focus or should we look around and listen?

I have always thought that there is a contradiction between the two, but I also think that maybe I have misunderstood the so-called "focus"? Does the so-called concentration not mean that we ignore to observe what is happening around us, but that we must simultaneously observe changes in the environment around us?

I hope to hear what the teacher thinks, thank you teacher

I wish the teacher all the best

James replied:

Thank you for your letter. Actually, I don’t think concentration is a necessary condition for success.

Concentration is just the degree of hard work, but our success has nothing to do with how hard you work or how focused you are. Instead, it is insight that we should pay attention to, and this is the key factor that determines success.

What is insight? It is something that everyone focuses on. You don’t have to be very focused and it may not be important.

But insight is the ability to see changes in the environment and see things that others cannot see. This is insight. So I think that in addition to probability of success, you have to increase the conditions for your success. Insight is the key.

When looking at a company or watching Apple's press conference, everyone's conclusion is different, but you can see the mystery behind it. This is insight (laymen see the excitement, insiders see the door).

Many people only focused on the $3,500 price of Vision Pro at the Apple conference, which is too expensive. This is called concentration, which means focusing on what everyone thinks and what the world believes that everyone should pay attention to. But the successful ones completely understand the essence of things.

Therefore, if you want to succeed, you must not be blinded by worldly views, don't be blinded by personal past knowledge, and be very clever in discovering the key that others cannot discover. Small changes in the world can provide insight into earth-shaking changes for humanity and even the world.

Insight can be trained. As long as you use your full imagination and your past experience, you will definitely have a unique perspective.

In the previous video of Lao Gao and Xiao Mo, it was mentioned at the end that the key to success is insight. He asked people who thought they were unlucky to read newspapers and magazines and asked them how many photos they had. As a result, these people who thought they were unlucky lacked insight and did not see the newspapers and magazines that said there were a total of 23 photos in the magazine. People with insight can see this number because they not only know how many photos to count, but also see the bonus inside.

Optimistic winners look in all directions to see if there are any other clues. Therefore, the reason why optimists are optimistic lies in their insight, rather than pessimists who are obsessed with others.

Thank you teacher for your answer!

I thought about it, and when I read Kazuo Inamori’s Mind and Living Methods, he also mentioned the importance of concentration, so I was confused at first. I thought about it carefully and I think the teacher is right. Insight is the most important. Insight determines the direction and concentration determines the subsequent execution. If you work in the wrong direction, you still won't get where you want to go.

Regarding what the teacher said, "Insight can be trained. As long as you use your full imagination and your past experience, you will definitely have a different perspective." I actually don't quite understand how we ordinary people can cultivate our own insight? I remembered another book I read a while ago, "What Billionaires Taught Me on the Road." When the author went on a free trip to Europe with the billionaire, he observed that the billionaire stared at the takeoff and landing of the plane and the changes in the clouds for a long time. He said that when the clouds are flat, the plane will fly smoothly, but if the ground is seen between the clouds, the plane will shake. The author often feels that this billionaire has super powers---for example, he can know which train to go to before the train sign shows the platform; he knows that this is the Central Station they are going to before even confirming the station to get off. He said that he calculated the time it took for people to get up and down to know which platform was empty, so it was most likely the platform where they were going to catch the train, and he observed that other people with luggage around him got off the train and deduced that it was Central Station.

I wonder if this kind of insight can really be developed? Or was it his own curiosity and personality that created him? I feel like the author, if I hadn't discovered that such a person existed around me, I would never have thought that someone would see the world this way. But if you want to develop such insight, doesn’t it take deliberate practice? Observe and think at any time. I would like to ask the teacher how he develops insight? Did the teacher specifically develop insights into the teacher's daughter when she was growing up? How is it cultivated?

Thank you teacher for taking the time to discuss my confusion with me. I wish you a happy weekend!

James replied:

People with good concentration can score 100 points in exams, but the top five students in our class are all good at taking exams and lack insight. Therefore, the best achievers in the future are usually in the fifth to tenth places. Therefore, those with good concentration can take exams, and those with good insight will definitely not be the first.

My past experience is that I can predict what may happen, but is this actually my foresight or the result of a quick insight after observing the environment.

For example, once we were sitting in a friend's car. The five people in the car, including the driver, were all very excited. The driver was also talking very excitedly. In this short period of time, I immediately felt that we were going to have a car accident. Within a few seconds, a car behind me hit me at a high speed, and the glass flew towards me in slow motion (why was it in slow motion? Because my eyes were focused on the rapid movement of the glass head) (at that time, the environment was completely blank, because my head was not moving. I only focus on those pieces of glass, regardless of other things, so my eyes only see those pieces of glass. This is the time when concentration is necessary, so the flight path of the glass is calculated by my head. Although it is very fast, my head’s calculation is faster, so I can avoid the danger of each piece of glass flying. Is this insight or foresight? (Insight allows you to predict the future, and concentration allows you to deal with short-term problems and risks.)

I know that I do not have the ability to predict the future. In fact, this is insight. When I quickly observed the environment, I had already predicted that the driver was not attentive while driving and everyone in the car was too excited. This was a precursor to an imminent risk. If a car accident occurred later, under the circumstances of my perception of the environment, the most likely probability of happening (my brain notified me of possible things that were about to happen in tens of millions of milliseconds) was a car accident.

I personally think that insight can be trained, but it cannot be trained. It depends on each person. For example, I am very curious about all things in the environment, so I used to teach more than a hundred students in the class. All the students just need to change seats, I can know immediately, so if one of the more than a hundred students sneaks in, I can also know immediately, because no one has ever sat in that seat. If there are students who change seats, I will know immediately. This is an ability to perceive the environment.

Of course, people like us sometimes say things that others cannot understand. For example, if there is a person holding a dog, I will say that this person should not be the owner of the dog, because I can tell whether you are the owner of the dog by observing his movements of holding the dog. However, many people will think that we have some mental problems and are boring.

Also, when a person speaks, I can tell whether he is lying by looking at his eyes. Although this is not entirely scientifically based, I can feel the true meaning of what he is expressing by observing his eyes and muscle movements.

So when I speak, I must speak from my heart, not from my head, because speaking from your head has a purpose. Only when you speak from your heart can you move others.

In short, you must have insight. You must ask questions about everything in the environment, and you must ask and answer yourself. This is the way to train your own insight, because everything in the environment must have a cause. The effect you see must also see its previous cause. If you only use the results to draw conclusions, you will definitely be blind. This is the difference between an insider’s perspective and a layman’s perspective.

So when you raise questions about any clues in the environment, people around you or your spouse will sometimes think that you have a mental problem. Of course, your spouse will gradually understand your thinking, and you will also slowly know that you are different. Sometimes you still have to hide what you know or all your doubts, but when you talk about it, it will speed up your thinking. So sometimes when I have a feeling or a doubt, I will still express my wild feelings out loud, because it will help me think.

I have said a lot above, but no matter how much I say, it is better for you to start asking questions about any behavior in the environment. For example, if you see two people eating in a restaurant, I would say that those two should not be a couple, or that the man and woman should be a couple, or... (Some people may think I'm a bit boring).

When you see a group of people discussing something together, you can think about why they are gathering there. Do they all know each other, or are they just having business discussions, or has something unexpected happened before? So there are clues before many accidents happen! Of course, for many people, such thinking is very boring, but there is no way I just have such curiosity.

These curiosity and observation skills are also the main elements in generating insight. There is no good or bad thing, only whether you are willing to become such a person.