A Test
02.10.2011 Had a great chat with Gabe, a dear friend from high school; he, like The Good Doctor, is anti-social media. No Twitter, Facebook, and only the most necessary email. He was a soccer superstar and he's in a demanding job that requires a lot of travel and contact with people, so he likes being a hermit crab in his limited spare time.
I can relate. You get pretty peopled out in my job too.
He sent me a link to this video as an example of what we were talking about. Which I will tell you about after you watch the video. Don't jump ahead. It's very interesting. And hopefully you are not one of the almost 3 million people who've already seen this video.
Deal? Now watch. It's only 1:22. Safe for work.
How did you do? You can post your comment here anonymously if you did poorly. You don't even have to leave an email or a URL (Aunt Jules).
I counted 12. And I never saw the damn gorilla even though he walked through and beat his chest. Good thing being observant has NOTHING TO DO with being a GOOD JOURNALIST or anything.
Meanwhile, I showed it to The Good Doctor, he hesitated and said 14 because he thought one of the passes was a trick and the girl had her back to him. Then before we went to the next part of the video he was all, "And I saw a monkey too!"
I was like, "No way. You've seen this video."
He swears he hasn't. "It's so obvious, the monkey like walks through and beats his chest!" He mimics the monkey's actions for emphasis.
I go brush my teeth. That guy is scarily aware.
Gabe says this is a video shown to coaches to signify how much you can miss when you're just watching certain players or only following certain actions.
Like, a freaking GORILLA can walk onto the field and you're too busy playing favorites or focusing on the quarterback to notice the giant primate in the midst of your players.
Which is why I would not be a good coach. I always play favorites. I live to play favorites. And I'm terrible at seeing what just happened. If they invent DVR for real life, let me know. I'll be an early adopter. In fact, when watching replays, IN SLO MO, I often still miss the action. "Babe, rewind. I didn't see. Yeah. No. I didn't see it."
My husband is a patient, patient man. And as I'm diagnosing from the 1:22 of video we just watched, he's omniscient. As he put it, "I see everything Vicky. I see the forest AND the trees." He's also the same man who does not see anything he is ever looking for until I arrive and find it in 1.7 seconds RIGHT THERE.
He's a good match for me, because apparently I only see things if they're in CAPS.
Reader Comments (15)
I did see the gorilla, but I lost track of the number of passes because my mind immediately went to the real gorilla in the Kent, England zoo that is walking upright like a man. Hmmm....what does that say about my mind? Wait - don't answer that!
I saw 14, really! But I missed one _because_ of the gorilla. He distracted me!
Seriously? You BOTH saw the gorilla? I am feeling pretty inferior at the moment.
15. No G.
Because I love trying to ace random "tests" like this, I was so intent on counting the correct number of passes that I completely missed the gorilla. I also initially thought I counted 14, but then there was that one point where it was hard to tell, so I thought maybe it was 15. Thus I give myself credit for seeing the trees, but none whatsoever for seeing the forest. No idea how that translates to real life, however...
15 and I did see the gorilla but I didn't recall the chest-beating until the replay at the end.
WGP I feel your pain.
Bish: Trees are nice.
Paul: Not bad.
Weird. I counted 12. During the counting I doubted myself and thought I read the question wrong thinking it was "how many players are wearing white?" I didn't believe there was a monkey until I replayed it.
PS: Nice job with the captcha feature.
I did count 15 and saw the gorilla. Assignments editors must see all. That might be a good test for them
14.. and I saw the Gorilla.. but didn't want to focus on it.. thought it was a trick! Someone once called me the most observant person they know. Apparently that's almost true. hahahaha
I counted 15 and saw the gorilla! Marines taught me well... And of course The Good Doc saw it all, at one point in time I think Basketball was his Thang! He's a natural at watching the ball and paying attention to the rest of the stuff going on too! Sorry Vicky :-)
13, no gorilla, although I thought I saw a person wearing all black and a black hood step into frame and I deliberately ignored them. Stupid gorilla.
NBC Viewer: Must be the site. You know I don't have the technical skills for Captcha.
Kelly: Yes, should be part of the interview process for sure. Add in some audio too so you can test their scanner listening abilities.
Dusti: Great point. The few, the proud, the gorilla spotters.
JJ: We suck.
shoot, shoot! I got ahead of myself and skimmed through your whole blog entry before looking at the video- so I read about the gorilla before watching the video. I counted 12 passes and of course I saw the gorilla. And now I'll never know if I would've seen that silly gorilla or not!
Stinnie, I love ya but you are SO disqualified :)