Scott Adams has passed away. To many, Adams is known primarily as the creator of Dilbert, that cartoon character with the flipped-up tie and a sincere effort to do his job well despite the challenges of a less than-perfect workplace. As most workplaces are somewhat less than perfect, many people found common ground with Dilbert.
Human behaviour can be absurd, and that’s what Adams presented in Dilbert cartoons. Sure, it’s frustrating when you actually have to work with annoying, counter-productive bosses and coworkers, but it’s pretty funny when you see it happening to someone else, even if it’s just a cartoon strip.
Adams also created a serious body of work, including writings on how to persuade, how to change your perceptions, and ultimately, how to make yourself more useful, successful, and happier.
At some point he must have asked the following question, which I have asked myself: “How can two people see exactly the same information and come up with quite different interpretations?”
Have you ever noticed this? You’re having a conversation; it could be about news, current events, lifestyle, even food. You are surprised to realize that your take on the topic is exactly opposite to the other person’s.
How can we see the same things and yet, somehow, not see the same things?
Adams referred to the phenomena as “Two Movies on One Screen.” Even when we appear to be watching the same event, what we see is quite different from what someone else sees.
What determines which “movie” we see? Choice Theory offers one hint in what’s known as “The Chart,” which attempts to explain why we behave as we do. In the chart, Dr. Glasser suggests that we get information from the real world through our senses (sight, sound, touch, etc.) No surprise there.
However, before we process that information, it passes through filters in what he refers to as our perceptual system. If the information doesn’t make it through the filters, we may not even know it exists.
For example, let’s say you take the same route to work every day. One day, your friend asks you to take their dog to the groomer, as you go right past it on your way to work. Groomer? On my way to work? What are you talking about?
Surprise! You’ve been driving by a dog groomer for years and never noticed. While your eyes may have seen the tiny sign, it had no significance. It was filtered out. But when you looked for the groomer, there it was.
What we see largely depends on what we look for. Choosing to look deliberately can change our perspective.
If we look for stories of people behaving badly, of betrayal and hopelessness, we can certainly find them. If we look for stories of inspiration, of people overcoming difficulties and succeeding despite poor odds, we can find those too.
Now, back to the movies. Where we direct our attention influences the kind of “movie” we see.
Even when we’re not looking, we get information. It may be through TV, online news feeds, or in conversations with people around us. Some social media, in efforts to keep us engaged, will feed us more of what it thinks we will like. Thus, we can get deeper and deeper into one way of looking, and never realize that there could be another viewpoint.
I’ve found the “two movies” framing useful in that it can help us understand and have compassion for each other when we don’t agree. That is, when we’re not seeing the same movie.
What do you think makes a difference in how we interpret what we see?
