Missing King Kong
Plus: The Count of Monte Cristo, Need for fathers, Standards to live by, Olympian Hits Wrong Target, Wedding Ceremony.
January 1, 2005
Why do some people see opportunities others miss? In the book Did You Spot the Gorilla? psychologist Richard Wiseman describes an experiment that provides a clue:
Volunteers watched a 30-second video of two teams playing basketball. They were asked to count the number of times one of the teams passed the ball. What they weren't told was that halfway through the video, a man dressed in a gorilla suit would run onto the court, stand in front of the camera, and beat his chest. Amazingly, only a few of the volunteers spotted the man in the gorilla suit. Most were so intent on counting passes that they completely missed the gorilla.
Wiseman concluded that most people go through life so focused on the task at hand they completely miss "gorilla" opportunities.
He gives the example of a team of 3M researchers who were trying to develop a high-strength adhesive. One of their attempts produced a product that was actually the opposite—a very low-strength adhesive. Most of the team thought the result was a failure, but one saw it as an opportunity. That failure became the glue on 3M Post-It Notes.
If we aren't careful, we can be so fixated on the mundane, that we miss God-given opportunities of significance.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Set-up:
The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of Dantes, who is unjustly accused and sentenced to life in France's most dreaded prison. After 13 years he escapes, becomes wealthy, and then seeks revenge on those who ruined his life. Through-out the movie Dantes struggles deeply with his belief in God, moving from a simple faith to a loss of faith, and finally to a mature faith.
During his years in prison, Dantes makes friends with a priest whose godly influence has great impact on Dantes' spiritual understanding. ...
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