Friday, June 19, 2009
Many years ago, when we were "birdwatching" (real birds) in the Kabini river, we had a couple sharing the Coracle with us. Out of the 4 persons on the boat and the guide/boatman, three of us seldom spotted any birds (atleast not first). But one guy often spotted stuff faster than the guide (a trained naturalist like the ones at JLR) did. We were flabbergasted, as was the naturalist.
Turned out, he was a gem sorter. He was used to gem spotting - and that skill enabled him to pick those birds in a sea of green and blue.
Recalled this incident when I was reading here, that According to Dan Pink, medical schools in the United States have started taking their students to art museums. The point isn't to turn them into art collectors. It's to have them practice seeing-a critical skill for aspiring diagnosticians