Romashka comments on What It's Like to Notice Things - LessWrong

32 Post author: BrienneYudkowsky 17 September 2014 02:19PM

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Comment author: Romashka 05 December 2014 01:38:41PM 0 points [-]

A wonderful skill, and it makes your life so much fuller. Even when you don't want it. I remember a day in the wild when my supervisor sent me out to measure some orchids (Dactylorhiza incarnata) in a population we had been studying for a few years. It was a very hot day, and I really wanted to come home ASAP. So when I saw a Dactylorhiza with two basal leaves, I didn't measure it and moved on. Soon, there was one with two basal leaves and delicate pale yellow flowers - but still definitely an orchid. OK, I started thinking that maybe it was time for a shower. Then after a while there were two together in a way that no Dactylorhiza I'd ever seen did. I was fed up and called my supervisor who 'almost fell out of bed' and said it was Liparis loeselii which was thought to be extinct in the area.