Don't look at the things that don't change

Back when I was still at UBC in residence, I got hooked on playing texas hold'em poker. As a student of the game, I absorbed as much information as possible in order to improve my own game. One thing I learned was that when the flop comes (the first 3 cards) and really, the subsequent turn and river (1 card each), you should not be looking at the cards, rather, you should be looking at your opponents to read their reactions.

Poker may be a game of betting, a game of cards but most importantly, it is a game of information. The more information you have, the better decisions you can make on how to play your hand (or the opponent's hand). I learned that once the flop is out, the cards don't change but you only get to see your opponent's reaction to the cards once. If you're just staring at the cards when they come out, you'll miss out on a vital piece of information.

Perhaps with a little too much zeal , I decided to apply that to other areas of my life. In particular, during conversations, I look at the person speaking 60% of the time but the other 40% of my time is spent looking at others and seeing what their reactions are. The people that notice tell me I'm creepy and I suppose it is, but again, information is king.

Here's a situation that happened to me recently where I picked up some valuable information by not staring at the things that don't change:

A few days ago, I was at the library waiting in line to get membership. Ahead of me was an older Asian gentleman who, I gathered from the card and books in his hand, was trying to check out the books. The librarian at the desk pointed him over to the self-checking out machines. Much of the checking in and checking out processes for the books were facilitated through RFID tags - it's a very modern technology. In any case, the gentleman headed over to the self-checking out machine and read the instructions on the screen which read "Place your card down on the machine top with the bar code facing up".

The man tried several times to place the card in the right way but try as he might, he could not get the card to scan through. At that point, many people would probably continue looking at the man but as if by instinct, I looked over to the librarian. I'm not sure if it was because I was looking or if it was a natural subconscious move on her part but she rolled her eyes and had that look that said "Oh God". Now I'm not trying to say that the man deserved it or that the librarian isn't very good at handling clients but you would miss out on this if you just stared at the man trying to scan in the card.

Next time, try looking at the things that you know won't change and look for the things that can change and perhaps you'll catch something you didn't catch before.