What Else Do You See?

About 17 years ago, I was walking around Greenwich Village in New York City with my 4-year-old daughter, Claire, on my shoulders. As we passed by buildings, street signs, trucks, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, skateboarders, trees, dogs, and people of all shapes and sizes, Claire would point and say,

"Look at that, Daddy!" and "What's that, Daddy?"

Before I had a chance to reply, she would say it all again, pointing out another and another and another object of interest.


While I was moved by my daughter's enthusiasm and curiosity, I felt that we weren’t fully able to appreciate what we were seeing because we were seeing too many things to really see any of them.


So I eventually slowed us down, and we began focusing on only a few of the many attractions that caught our interest. I would ask Claire what she saw, and then, without moving on, ask,

"What else do you see?"

We found this new version of our game much more satisfying, for it prompted us to privilege and develop our powers of seeing, versus privileging our need to acquire more sightings.


This is the history behind my “What Else Do You See?” newsletter. Its mission is to provide psychological guidance on how to better navigate the increasingly divisive, unpredictable, and frightening landscapes facing us today. To slow down and to think more critically. To learn to expect and welcome nuances, distinctions, and contradictions. To find better, more thoughtful ways of disagreeing. To become more psychologically minded.

If this strikes you as something you would enjoy and benefit from, please reply to his post with a YES PLEASE and I will send you, free of charge, bi-monthly issues of my newsletter, What Else Do You See? If this is not for you, simply reply with a NO THANK YOU and you shall not hear from me again.

Many thanks for your consideration, and all best,

Nick

P.S. Future issues include:
  • Psychological Mindedness and the Price of Personal Freedom
  • When Did Efficiency Supplant Meaning?
  • What Gave Us the idea that Happiness was the Thing to Strive For?
  • Who Wants to Be a Billionaire, and Why?
  • On the Futility of Quick-Fix Solutions