...just because you see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s there. And if you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s not there. It’s only what your senses bring to your attention.

Douglas Adams
About This Quote

If you only see the things you want to see it is possible that you are blind to the truth. You simply cannot believe everything you see or feel. If something passes across our field of vision, it may well be there, but we can also miss it because we are not looking in the right place. The trick here is to look for meaningful patterns in everything around us.

For example, if you are attending a party, look for patterns in how people act and react to each other. Here is an example: Person A gets up early, goes to the bathroom, and comes back to find Person B at the party talking to another person. Person A walks up to Person B and says something like "hey, where were you?" Person B says "I went to the bathroom" or "where was I last night?" or "do you know anyone?." The conversation moves on with no mention of where Person A was last night.

This seems like a minor event until Person A does something later that makes sense if he had been drinking.

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