justing.net

An Imperfect Library of Noticing

By Justin G. on 24SEP07SAT

These are some resources I’ve found helpful for noticing more, and noticing what I’m noticing. These are books¹ that I myself have read and found to be relevant to noticing more. But, it’s not a perfect list. I haven’t surveyed all the possibilities. I haven’t even found a great handle for finding other sources (email me if you have figured it out). So here, I present to you, what I know so far.

So much of noticing is thinking. So much of noticing is attention. Noticing is openness.

I think the biggest leg up for noticing more is knowing a little of the thing that you are intersted in. With a tiny bit of knowledge you can begin, you have eyes (even if those are are one of the other senses) If you know nothing, you don’t even know what to look for at all. There’s very little payoff from all the time spent looking. You’re missing so much of the unknown unknowns. So, once you know there is a niche you want to see more of, just go find the shortest introduction you can. It’ll pay you back a hundred fold.

Alternatively you can just go in totally blind. It’s liberating and freeing and a pure sensate inquiry of yourself and the environment. Very flow. You might find something that no one has noticed before.

Looking, Noticing, Attention

These sources deal directly with the topic at hand.

• On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz, 2013
  Horowitz’s book does a couple of things that are so far unique. First, she show’s us what she learns from an expert by being an uneducated looker and begins to notice the first things that the expert has taught her. Second, at least for me, is that she provides a small keyring of these toehold introductions in the dozen chapters of the book. I don’t think it was her intention to be a catalog of introductions. If it were, I think that book would be arranged quite differently. There are not many general references here either.
• The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker, 2019
  A book of exercises and suggestions on this very topic. The one that helped me realize that there is a topic for this idea of looking and noticing and spying. Many references in the back yet to be explored. Rob also has a newsletter.²
• How to See by George Nelson, 2003
  It’s a picture book of many different themes that this designer is attracted to in the urban scene. There is a small amount of text to give a little more context on the themes.
• How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell, 2019
  Odell’s book comes from the direction of escaping the attention economy. But it still is aimed directly at noticing your surroundings and the secrets that are there right before us all.

From the Arts

Artists are always making something of the things that they notice, whether inwardly or outwardly. They’re such observers and recognizers, even when they aren’t able to say what it is that they have put their finger on. Of course they have an extensive practice and library of this subject. Lots of tools here for tuning the mind and attention to notice what you are noticing.

• How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz, 2019
  Has a good discussion on methods for noticing what you are noticing.
• Draw it with your eyes closed edited by Paper Monument, 2012
  A collection of exercises from artists classes.
• The Photographer’s Playbook edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern, 2014
  Another collection of exercises, for photographers.
• Steal Like an Artists by Austin Kleon, 2012
• Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, 1993
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 4th ed. by Betty Edwards, 2012
  A little more distantly related, but still relevant. It’s about observing.

Writers

Similar to the artists, writers are also great noticers of things. In order to write it, you have to become aware of it first. And you have to attend carefully to what you are resonating with too.

• The Art of Description by Mark Doty, 2010
  About poetry writing.
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
  About all kinds of personal writing.
• The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck, 1951
  (I have the 1995 Penguin Classics edition)
  An example of both concrete observations as well as the insubstantial cultural type things. Lots of good clear writing here, you can feel the act of noticing that Steinbeck has done.

Mind Skills

These references are indirectly related, but still useful.

• How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens, 2017
  Mostly just included for the bits about types of attention, collecting raw notes, and the mechanics of making connections.
• The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul, 2021
  It’s been a while, but if I remember right, the earlier chapters about magpie mind is relavent here.
• How to Think like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok, 2020
  Lots of tools related to thinking and using your brain that are related to this topic. Well, I thought they were.

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If you have some tips on other good sources, books, podcasts, blogs, what have you, I’m all ears. Use the link below.

Email me your best references on noticing.