Headspace or shelfspace. You don't know
what you want until you see it.
Headspace is the vague, but useful,
measure of an individual's subjective capacity to consciously
experience the combined inner and outer environment at any one time.
Headspace is not static. Headspace is a dynamic process of shifting
attention between the two primary vectors; noticing and remembering.
Headspace measurement is notoriously
imprecise and unreliable. Noticing can degenerate into imagining and
remembering can be distorted by fantasy or false associations. Since
headspace is limited, Since headspace is limited like shelfspace, it
must be selective.
The limited nature of headspace
explains the behavior of absent-minded professors. Einstein had so
completely engaged his thinking about theoretical physics that he
forgot to wear pants. He was so focused on his headspace process, he
also failed to notice every item of overt evidence regarding his lack
of trousers in public.
Limited and unreliable headspace is the
reason for shopping lists. Others rely upon shelf displays as a
memory aid. With a list you know what you need if it is on the list.
With shelfspace you know what you need when you see it. If it is not
on the list or not on the shelf, it falls through the cracks.
A related concept is that you often
don't know what you have until it's gone. President Barack Obama is a
good example of this. Consider Obama's face as it appears on a coffeemug. If you had merely heard or thought his name, would the fact he
is the Nation's first and only black President come into your mind,
or do you need the visual representation as a reminder, see acollection here.
The forty-forth President of the United
States. Gone but not forgotten.
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