Iâm sure most of you have already read a lot of posts about observation, and are now thinking âGod, not this againâ. but iâll try to make this one as different as possible, letâs go through the basics quickly. Observation is the first step in deduction, it consists on gathering as much information about the situation or object at hand as you possibly can, thatâs why i donât just mean looking at something, but listening, touching, and sometimes even smelling and tasting. Now most people tell you focus on getting all the small details about everything, and donât get me wrong, this is incredibly important and you should try to focus on any small detail you can find, the more details you find the more âclayâ you have to build your âbricksâ, but ultimately this will come naturally as you progress in deduction.
But i know the frustration of being told to observe and not knowing what to look for, iâve been there myself. The answer to that question is everything, and this is what people donât tell you. Thereâs nothing specific you gotta be looking for, this is just observation, this is just getting the clay for your bricks, and itâs as simple as thinking âwhat can i see?â (or smell or touch, etc.), it just consists of raw information. For example, statements like the man has a red tie or the tie has a small coffee stain at the bottom. And thatâs all you have to do while in the stage of observing. my advice would be, donât overcomplicate it, you have to observe, just do that, no conclusions, no deductions, nothing, just observing, just gathering data. But obviously, youâre not a computer, you canât store unlimited amounts of observations and information all in 30 or 40 seconds, not even in 5 minutes. If you try to observe and take note of everything you can possibly see or smell or touch, etc. About an object or person or situation, youâll end up very confused (unless youâre actually writing them down). So my recommendation is, take it step by step, object by object, if youâre looking at a tie, stick with the tie, if you feel you can move to another object without getting mixed up and remembering all the things you took note of, then go ahead, but donât mix more than 3 objects together, this will come later on in the process of deduction. you should take it bit by bit, observe 3 objects, deduce from them, move to the next 3, deduce from them, and so on. Until youâre more experienced in the process. Obviously for now just observe the objects and donât deduce, because we still have to cover a lesson on drawing conclusions.
Donât try to do it quickly, take your time, the quicker you try to do it the more youâre going to jump to conclusions, as much as Sherlock does it in seconds, youâll learn to get to that level with practice. When we observe our brain starts jumping to conclusions automatically, this may be quite dangerous as it they, more often than not, are wrong, but you must remember, thereâs always a base for these assumptions, your brain is making some kind of connection between something youâre seeing and a piece of information you already have, and this base may be able to lead you somewhere. As for the actually assumption, it is after all an idea, and you canât kill an idea, unfortunately. What you can do though, is disprove it. When faced with an assumption, donât try to forget about it, it only makes you think about it more, like telling you not o think of a pink elephant. Instead try to look for evidence that points towards or away from said assumption, if the evidence doesnât point towards it, just discard it, mark it as incorrect. This is good, as it lets you eliminate the impossible and organise the improvable.
The nightmare of every deductionist, a bias is basically your emotions and opinions playing a part in the logical process. While there is a part of deduction that requires emotion, the logical aspect of it must be kept away from these, how do you do that? create a âbubbleâ of sorts, around your bias. Every fact and deduction that favours that bias, must go through a âmoisturisingâ process to go through that bubble, this would mean, checking the facts to see if your deduction or observation is being affected by said bias. Following the example of the tie, if you think said tie is ugly, you have to check the facts, is this tie ugly just for me, or do most people think it looks stupid? if itâs just me, i canât incorporate that as a fact, itâs just my opinion, and in a deduction it has no value Therefore getting rid of the bias. Thereâs a chance that the bias may lead you somewhere, if youâre not the only one that thinks said tie is ugly, then you can use this to a certain extent as a fact, stating that this tie is considered ugly or stupid by most people. Giving you a proper observation
Thatâs it for today, guys. Weâre slowly getting the basics out of the way, if there are any questions, iâm happy to help, next class will be posted soon, until then, have fun observing, and donât be afraid to follow any exercises you find or using a notebook, after all it just speeds up the process of getting better at deduction.
