When Puusti the Dog is trying to work out what is going on, considering what is about to happen, he has a thinking ear that sticks out to one side. He does this often, as he observes his surroundings (normally us) and wonders what is going to happen next. And a little ago when he was watching me from the couch as I entered the room, I thought that it is a pretty good strategy.
Stop, look, and listen.
And then I was reminded of that phrase from when I was a child, because there were adverts for it and it was taught at school, that children should stop, look and listen, before they cross the road. I looked it up and it appears that in some countries, they have added, "think" onto the end, which makes sense, but is also kind of obvious. Though in today's world, maybe we shouldn't take for granted that people would automatically think, since many seem incapable or unwilling to stress their brains with the taxing process required for thought.
Listening itself as part of our social abilities seems to have degraded, as our social media habits have turned us into broadcasters, not receivers. We are looking to send, not hear. And even when we are listening, we are listening without preconception instead of an openness to absorb, process and understand, before formulating our response. I know that I am often guilty of this myself, and I see it in many others I spend time with also. The few who do actually listen and process first, tend to do well for themselves, but there is also a cost to it, as some think they are too slow - impatience is another symptom of our changing habits.
We are not only living in an on-demand environment where everything is at our fingertips, as we are also pressured to be "the first" to have the information or experience, even if it is useless. Look at the lines that form to be "the first" with a new iPhone and then realise, none of those people are first, yet they feel special for being near the front to buy a product. And then, people will line up for hours in some places to get "the first" taste of a new drink or a donut at a shop in the same way. It is ludicrous, as lines snake around a shopping centre or through the streets for a five dollar pastry.
We have lost our sense of values.
Not just moral and ethical values, but the value of goods and services. From a monetary perspective the values is whatever someone is willing to pay for the product, but there are other forms of value like in the experience or practical usage. Many seem to overvalue getting a donut first and undervalue the time it takes, or the effort, or the disappointment. A lot of consumer products are highly overvalued, and a lot of the opportunity cost alternatives are undervalued.
Be the first in line for useless.
Perhaps if we used our thinking ear instead of listening to our desires, we would realise what is actually going on. That we are being conditioned to consume useless at a far higher cost than it takes to produce, or that it returns to us. We are being milked of value as we swap it for the valueless. If we listened, we would not only retain our value, we would be far more discerning with how we spent it, whether it be money, time, effort, or our psychological energy. Perhaps then we would spend our resources creating valuable experience, instead of losing valuable resources.
Stop, look, and listen.
Perhaps that "think" is needed after all.
Taraz
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As much as I love my toys, I am frugal with my money and ever that supply has dried up a little while building a business. So, I see people lining up and being those who buy the latest thing, version 1.0 and other early adopter stuff. Maybe that is the experience they enjoy and the value for them? I dunno.
Anyhow, it is perhaps those times when disposable income dwindles that good habits are built and we are not so hasty to splurge. Funny how I can see that being passed down to my kids now that they have money of their own!
Anyhow, I wil enjoy the experience of letting someone else buy a brand new car and run the highest level of depreciation off it out of pride and perceived image. Happy to buy that 3 year old car for cash and enjoy quality stuff half paid for by those who don’t stop and listen.
Yes - which begs the question....
Me too - and then drive it for 10+ years more :)
One day I asked one of my students how many works of art have you seen in the past week? He said: "Professor, about 100 works, maybe more... I told him, so come and talk about a few of them... He said no, I just looked, I can't talk. I told him that there should be learning in looking. If you only want to look at a few works, you should answer several questions in your mind, and when you look at a work of art, pause and ask yourself what materials did the artist use? What was his purpose? What visual elements did he use? What kind of color and form composition did he use? What kind of visual texture is there in his work? Has another artist done something like him that you have seen? And... After that pause and finding the answers in your mind, then you can say that I have seen a work of art.
I think your point and the example you gave about your dog are understandable and very informative.
I think when we look at art, we can look at in different ways. You as an art teacher of some kind might look at it from materials and composition, but another might look at it from a sense of meaning. At the end of the day though, what the artist intended is less important than what the viewer interprets.
I think that Puusti would make a good spy.
Also the first photo makes me wonder how it would feel to have huge ears, elephant's trunk or a tail. Just how much control I would have over it.
Why a good spy?
There sis a Dr Seuss book called "I wish that I had duck feet" you could read. :D
I wonder how many purchases people would avoid if they gave themselves 24 hours to think before buying something they suddenly wanted.
Studies show that delaying the purchase makes a big difference.
It is really interesting how the value we assign to things is often based on how hard these things are to get. It doesn't even have to be the hard to get because something costs so much in monetary terms, but it also applies to relationships.
For example when a guy gets the girl relatively easily he tends to assign a very low value to her regardless of her looks or other qualities...
And it goes the other way also. Men are far, far too easy to get for women :D
Ha, the thinking ear is a perfect image. I caught myself doing the same last week, already forming my reply while someone was still talking. That stop, look and listen rule from school feels old fashioned now, but it still works.
I think it might be more relevant when crossing a road now, since the electric cars are silent, and people are staring at their phones.
There is something worth considering here: sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is nothing for a moment. No scrolling, no replying, no buying. Just observing and thinking.
Well, that is true. Many people seem scared of hearing their own thoughts - probably because they will create conflicts with what they are doing.
I don't think people have completely lost their sense of value, but I do think modern advertising and social pressure make it harder to recognise what deserves our attention.
Many have lost it in terms of what is needed, and what is wanted. They can't tell the difference.
I love this habit in dogs! I don't have a dog myself, but my sister has two dogs that do exactly the same thing.
I think the very first thing that has changed is our values; things that used to be considered valuable are now seen as anti-values. In this modern society, we are conditioned and either don't have the time to think, or we simply don't want to. Thinking is truly the missing element in these societies.
Hard work used to be a positive trait, now everyone is looking to do as little as possible and think it is winning. What it is, is giving up most of our potential.
As everybody sees in their daily life, we focus on defending their oye own opinions instead of genuinely considering different perspectives.
Yes. Even with people we care about.
I already trust Puusti more than I trust 95% of my neighbors.
Puusti definitely doesn't trust the neighbours.
Hmmm... small dog paranoia, or deep understanding of humanity?
Haha Puusti with that one ear flipped out looks way smarter than the people camping outside stores for a new iPhone. At least a dog only gets excited over real food, not hype!
The only food he really gets excited over, is boiled egg. When he hears an egg getting cracked, he is only ever a second or two away.
peek-a-boo! and those close ups of doggy eyes.. so good. yes, we must stop AND think.
LoL the thinking ear is so cute XD
My dog is meant to have semi cropped ears but when she's thinking/observing they somehow become almost fully pricked (one fully the other about 97% with just the very tip still flopping over). One day I might be able to get a photo of it.
Yeh this definitely didn't help. Back when I was at uni a couple of decades ago I did observe that "everyone" was intensely far more interested in talking than listening (I was one of those once) and most of the time "listening" seemed to be more impatiently waiting for the other person to shut the hell up so you could keep talking/impress everyone with your witty comeback than actually listening.
Some of it is an adhd thing; I have in Youngest, he is much better about it now that he's older but even he has said sometimes it's "incredibly difficult to stop yapping" even when he can see that the other person isn't interested or he eventually cottons on that he's been monopolising all the air in the room. I probably was the same at his age without realising it.
Other people I'm not so sure, maybe entitled gits or something, I have met people who seem utterly convinced that they should be the only ones talking and nobody else knows anything at all and should absolutely just shut up and be told things and never ever respond in any fashion.
I think the overvaluing getting the product has to be done because the people doing it might not be able to cope with the massive blow to their ego otherwise. Which makes me wonder how many people genuinely enjoy that kind of thing vs how many people just say they do to aggressively defend their egos. Kind of like the number of people who claim that they (actually) love stuff like hiking and camping vs the people who say they do (to impress other people/seem worldly/more interesting/etc).