Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The perception story


Last week i visited one of my relatives as i had not met them since a long time.
I was discussing my higher education with my uncle chirping some banana wafers.
As we were on profiles and scope,there came a point at which he gave me a excellent story-embedded example.
(I do not exactly remember when this point came but its worth sharing ).
Here it goes:

Once a professor decided to test the preparations of his students for the coming placement week.
He called his 7 students to meet him at the university lawns for a casual talk.
All of them gathered at 6 pm with hazy sunset at the lawns.
(Just try to imagine the scenario to make the picture LIVE)
The professor asked about their preparations and all the 7 students seemed quite confident.

The professor decided to teach them the most important lesson before they join the corporate world.

He gave a blank paper and pencil to each student.
Meanwhile walking , there came a brickstone on their path.
The professor paused for a moment and asked the students to solve a exercise for him.

He asked the students to write as many advantages of the brickstone as they knew,individually.

After 10 minutes , he collected the papers from all the 7 students.

What he saw was :

Student 1 - Points (1),(2),(3),(4),(5)
Student 2 - Points (1),(2),(3),(5),(6)
Student 3 - Points (1),(2),(3),(5),(7)
Student 4 - Points (1),(2),(3),(7),(8)
Student 5 - Points (1),(2),(3),(4),(6)
Student 6 - Points (1),(2),(3),(8),(9)
Student 7 - Points (1),(2),(3),(5),(8)

After comparing the answer sheets,he asked student 1 to speak loudly his answers.
After all the 5 points numbered 1 to 5 were presented,he asked student 2 if he missed any.
Student 2 : Sir,I missed point 4 but i have a new point 6

Similarly,
Student 3 : Sir,I missed point 4 but i have a new point 7

Student 4 : Sir,I missed point 4,5,6 but i have two new points 7 and 8

and so on.

The professor : Do you know these points or you are completely unaware of it ?

Student 1 -7 : We all know these points.But we were not able to note down each and every point even though we knew them all.

The professor : EXACTLY !

Student 1 - 7 : Lesson learnt



Moral of the story : Everyone knows everything.Its all about the matter of perception. Dot your I and cross your T before you speak :)







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