Noticing

People never notice. When they walk into a room full of people, they tune the crowds out. When they start focusing on their work they never stop and look up, see how the room around them has changed. People never look at ceilings or (if possible) what's happening below. I think it might be a processing trick- it's a lot easier to
do stuff if you aren't constantly blasted by information overload.

I've been making an effort to be more aware of my surroundings. That means whenever I walk into a cafe I do a loop to see who I recognize, and taking breaks from my work every few minutes to get up and look around. I've managed to see dozens of familiar faces this way. People I haven't seen in weeks or months. They're always surprised when I walk up to them. Either they glazed over the crowd when they walked in, or didn't notice when I did.

Just the other day I was eating in one cafe when a good friend walked right past me and sat down at an adjacent table. I waited ten minutes before leaning over and poking him. His first question was "how long have you been there?"