A time for "slow looking"

We are wired to identify the familiar. We take in our surroundings and process the information to compare it to what we already know. The world we live in is so complex that doing anything else would paralyse us as we struggle to process it.

However, when much of the familiar has changed significantly or is disappearing altogether, it does not serve us well. We can see many people, including CEOs of major businesses, looking desperately for what they have been used to and knew how to deal with and even, like some latterday Monarch, instructing the court wizard to summon it into existence.

When we are busy looking in vain for the familiar, we are much less likely to spot the new replacing it. The seedlings of tomorrows normal. Spotting those is part talent but mostly skill and does not come naturally.

The most skilled people I know are early years educators and psychologists. They spend a lot of time training and working with young children to notice and document what and how they are lea…