“You see what you aim, and you aim at what you value”

Jordan B. Peterson

One of the most talked-about studies is the Gorilla Experiment. In it, participants are shown a video of two teams divided by black and white shirts playing a game with a ball. They are asked to count how many times the ball is passed between team members with black shirts. 

At the end of the video, most people are able to count the passes correctly. But many of them couldn’t answer the follow up question: “Did you see the Gorilla?” It turns out that in the middle of the video, someone enters in a giant gorilla costume, walks to the center of setting and pounds his chest, then makes his exit. And 50% of the participants didn’t notice it at all.

Now you may think that there must be something wrong for the participants to not notice a giant gorilla. But the truth is, there’s a 50% chance you wouldn’t have noticed it too.

Whether we like it or not, our perception of the world is filtered. It’s filtered by our thoughts, actions, and goals. If you told participants to simply see the video, of course they would have seen the gorilla. But direct them towards another objective, and they become blind outside of it.

Why does this happen? And what does it mean for us if we want to see the gorillas of the world?

Unintentionally Blind

The researcher for the gorilla experiment also made another experiment with even more surprising revelations. In it he had people watch a video of people being served behind a counter. During the video, the server ducks behind the counter, and reappears, but this time as a completely different person. And it turns out the vast majority of participants didn’t even see this simple change.

Even without a given direction, we don’t see the server switch. Because it is irrelevant. The server holds the neurological position in our mind of an individual assisting us. Until we feel we should distinguish the server uniquely, the details don’t matter. We think there are more important things. Therefore, we don’t notice the switch.

The idea is that we are blind to most of the world, even to the things in our sight. Even if we may not have a particular aim. And we have to be. After all, there’s too much information for us to perceive. Therefore, we’re forced to restrict ourselves simply to what is important.

And who decides what’s important? Ourselves. 

Either unconsciously or consciously, we determine our focus. And our focus determines what we see and make of the world. As John Milton writes in his classic Paradise Lost: “The Mind is a place of its own; and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” Indeed, these are nothing but states of the mind. And we can perceive the world in a certain way based on it

Wearing The Right Glasses

Focus is guided by our values. Imagine someone who believes the world is primarily negative? What things would their sight notice more than others? What feedback loop is created for their perspective? And what would happen if that person believed the reverse instead?

It’s also worth wondering how our goals come into play as well. Maybe having short-term goals really does make us short-sighted. And if we pursue the wrong goals, maybe we’ll miss the gorillas staring right at us. The gorilla that could be an opportunity to engage in something we are passionate about or that is meaningful. We can become blind to it as we

We can’t see everything. So the question is, what are your thoughts, actions, and goals? In what way are they blinding you from certain things? Does some negativity force you to see the downside of things, which leads to a never-ending spiral? And could having some positivity or meaning change the environment you believe the world is providing you? 

Because those are the glasses we wear each day. And it’s not always by choice, unless we are aware of what filters are on it.

We are not simply receptors of our world. Our mind unconsciously selects information to present based on the objective we pursue. And we pursue things by what we value. So what are your values? And what might you need to open your eyes to by changing them?