This Is Why You Still Think A Rainbow Has 7 Colors
The closer your look, the less you see.
Are you paying attention?
Before reading this story, try and ask the person closest to you how many colors a rainbow has.
I know, it’s easy! Right?
The answer is 7.
Everybody knows that.
But is it really that easy? Are you absolutely sure that a rainbow only has 7 colors?
Actually, a rainbow is made of a multitude of color gradients and yet we all think it has only 7.
Why?
Only because it’s easier.
It is easier, yes. It’s way easier to say 7 so we can draw it, picture it, dream it, paint it.
You’re fooled by your own mind. It’s a matter of perception.
Perception can cause huge damage.
That’s why so many companies get disrupted: they can’t bridge the gap between perception and reality.
PERCEPTION vs REALITY
Perception is the attempt to match elements of the world around us with existing mental models.
A model is a mental construct in which reality is greatly simplified in order to be usefully apprehended, according to an objective. It allows us to think about the real and act on it, it is both an abstraction of the present and a support for building the future.
A model is not meant to portray reality, it is a fiction. All models are therefore false, but that’s not the point. The only relevant question is whether the model is useful or not. The main purpose of a model is to stylize reality and highlight its important features.
The famous “Game Theory” is one example of a model economists, psychologists and politicians often use.
Stereotypes are also models we create to make our thinking process way easier. There are shortcuts, simplifications.
Some other models are called representations. They are the ones you create based on a given event or moment but over which you have no control.
Let’s say I pass you in the line at the supermarket. You’re upset at first, but then I turn around and you realize that I’m blind, you’re going to change your perception of the situation and probably calm down. Then you are told that you have been set up for a famous TV show, you’ll probably change your behavior again. All this is based on representations that you create for yourself in order to capture the world around you.
There are many different forms of models and most of us don’t realize that we’re using them in our daily life.
HOW TO CREATE NEW MODELS ?
To do so, you need to master the art of Inductive Reasoning.
Induction is the real challenge of thinking. It’s through this process that concepts are formed, strategies developed and models constructed.
To induce, you must necessarily let go, take a time of non-rationality because it’s not rational to be fully rational.
We’re always trying to bring the unknown closer to the known.
The inductive process starts from the most specific to the least specific, from the particular to the universal and, therefore, the inductive process is never 100% accurate. There is no right or wrong answer.
There is one main issue with the inductive process that makes it hard to grasp and to evaluate:
All inferences from experience assume, as a starting point, that the future will look like the past and that similar actions will be linked to similar effects.
If one predicts that the course of nature may change and that the past is not a rule for the future, then all experiment becomes useless and can’t give rise to any inferences or conclusions.
It is therefore impossible that all the empirical evidence can prove this resemblance of the past with the future since it is only based on the assumption of this similarity.
A perfect induction is therefore impossible since it would take an infinite amount of time.
Then, the inductive process wouldn’t be possible without perception.
Perception is an abstraction of the present.
It allows us to give meaning to what is in front of us by relying on what’s in ourselves. It’s a state of mind, a mental behavior that engages the senses.
A major downside is that your perception is always trying to match some elements of the observed reality, with one or more of your existing boxes, mental models. You are then slightly drifting away from reality, day after day.
You’re not challenging yourself anymore. It’s easy, too easy.
HOW CAN WE CHANGE OUR PERCEPTION AND OBSERVE THE WORLD WITH A FRESH EYE THEN?
It’s possible but very hard and counter-intuitive.
To bridge the gap between perception and reality, you need to change twice.
On the one hand, we have innovation which is a change in the reality of things. This is a continuous process and the change occurs within the game without changing its rules.
On the other hand, we have creativity which is a change in the way we perceive things. This is a discontinuous process and the change consists here in changing the rules of the game.
Changing perception is always a strong shock because you go from one simplification to another.
A change in perception can only take two forms: either creativity has caused its impact and the disruption is deliberate, or the disruption is inflicted and the acknowledgment of failure is harsh and inevitable.
The true challenge is to change twice : change the reality of things to then change your perception of things.
LET’S TAKE THE EXAMPLE OF THE BIC COMPANY
At first, BIC was a pen company. But, at some point, they felt that they would be irrelevant soon if they didn’t change their strategy.
So, they decided to innovate and they created multicolor pens, big pens, small pens, basically they just did some changes within the same game but without changing its rules. They were still producing pens. This was a change in the reality of things.
But the moment they realized they weren’t selling pens but they were actually selling disposable items, only then they were able to create the shock needed to change their perception. They suddenly saw a whole new world opening in front of them and they started selling razors, lighters, glue sticks, phones,…
They changed the rules of the game. They changed twice, they bridged the gap between perception and reality.
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
— Wayne Dyer
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 339,876+ people.
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