Here's looking at you
If you stare at something, it works faster. Now how true is this proposition? I know it is not novel but it just suddenly crossed my mind. There definitely seems to be some connection, at least psychologically, that when we stare/look at something, it will be done faster.
Of course, I am not talking in the context of your boss staring you down while you complete his latest order or when your mom looks at you while you finish eating those vegetables.
Instead, I’m referring to inanimate objects such as looking at a download bar while a file downloads, a kettle boiling, a bus/taxi from yonder, the traffic lights...i think you get the general idea.
I highly suspect that you suffer from this as well, or rather have done this at some points of your life, if not your entire life. Logically, we may or may not realise that looking at it will not make it work/move faster. Yet, we still do it. Why so? Were we conditioned to do as such so that we may be ready for the eventual outcome? To illustrate, the act of staring at the red lights on a traffic light is in actual effect our body priming for the eventual green light. So that we may be ready to move.
I am not saying that it is true, but I am just thinking out loud. I have wondered at times but never really thought deeply about it enough.
Another reason that I have conceived (during my usual stare at the sky/etc contemplative moments) is that we do it because we do not want to think about other commitments/responsibilities. Example, staring at the kettle for it to boil so that we may cook our cup noodles. We do not want to think/look at anything else because our mind is so preoccupied with the thought of cooking the cup noodles, eating it. In a similar vein, it may also be alternatively construed to be focusing on something when in reality we should focus on something else. Such as waiting for your mp3 files to download finish, you could go on and finish a paragraph or two (or maybe more since we are slaves to Internet Monopoly in the Golden Chersones) but instead you feel more inclined to look at the download bar. Avoiding and procrastinating in a sense. Isn’t it?
Then there is the Law of Attraction. Thinking of the green light, making effort towards achieving that green light, visualising yourself moving forward at the blink of the said light, feet already on pedal, gears in D... Does it really make the green light come quicker? Aren’t the lights already pre-programmed to come on after a certain period of time?
Having said and done all, the fact that I’m writing this is probably a means of escaping the work that I am supposed to be doing. Oh well. I better get back to it. Just think about it. Will staring at my work make it finish it a lot faster?
