Some Random Thoughts

Seeing Around Corners…….A leader who can “see around corners” is highly valued as someone who has that uncanny abliltiy to think ahead and see problems before they happen.

In business, not all clues are so imperceptible that they require a high-speed camera and a powerful computer to discern.  Walk around an office or plant floor when no one is there.  Look carefully.  What do you hear? 

But did you know that we all the ability to literally see around corners?  Bill Freeman and Antonio Torralba and their colleagues at MIT have discovered you can in fact “see” what is not directly visible.  We do this from by drawing inferences from a variety of inputs, principally shadows.

In business, we can achieve some success by navigating the clear obstacles in front of us.  But to knock it out of the ballpark, we need to take time to look for more subtle clues – the shadows that enable us to see around the corner.

Hearing with Your Eyes…..Did you know that we can also hear with our eyes?

Well, not quite, but with the help of some high-tech equipment.  The same MIT team that studied non-line-of-sight vision focused a high-speed camera on a bag of potato chips.  Like Edison inventing the phonograph, someone recited “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”  With the help of a powerful computer and complex algorithm, the team analyze the impact of air pressure on the potato chip bag caused by the sound.  From the minuscule movements of the bag, they were able to produce an audible rendition of the poem.  Hearing with their eyes.