Is What You See What You Really Get?
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009When you see something, how often do you make judgements based on the setting in which you see it?
A friend sent me an email about an experiment organised by the Washington Post.
In a nutshell, a young chap plays the violin at a metro station one cold morning in Washington DC. It’s rush hour, he plays several pieces of music over 45 mins and more than a thousand people pass by. During his performance a few people slow down, 7 stop and about 27 people gave him money. The one who paid him most attention was a 3 year old boy, his mum doing her best to drag him along so she wouldn’t be late for work. During this time he collected $32. Between each piece there was silence, no applause or recognition.
Who was this violinist? Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world, playing various classical pieces on a violin worth a cool $3.5 million. What’s more prior to the experiment on the metro station, tickets for his performance at a theater in Boston were sold out and the seats averaged $100.
The experiment was done to see if in a common place setting we notice real beauty and talent, and do we allow ourselves time to appreciate it. Or are we so absorbed in the minutiae of our life that we miss many special moments to be lost forever.
So back to my initial question - to what extent do you let the environment influence your expectations, your judgement, your perception?