Japan's Rail Workers Pointing at Things (2017)

When I worked on a large historical sailing ship that required a dozen crew to perform tasks like raising sails, tacking, or reefing, we followed a call-and-response verbal command system for many of the same reasons. When the helmsman would yell out "Ready about!", we would check the surroundings and respond "Ready!", then we would listen for "Helms Alee!" and prepare to switch sides and trim the sails. This process made sure that all of the crew were synchronized as…

Hadn't read this in a while - this made me think of similar applications of the same idea. I remember when I was shooting IDPA competitions, I made myself physically touch the chamber every time I cleared a firearm to ensure there was no ammunition there. If you're tired or distracted, it's too easy to just do a quick visual glance and maybe miss something. Physically touching it forces you to slow down and pay attention. Techniques along this pattern…

This is a great technique to enhance focus and spot details. After I read about it the first time I thought that must also work for other things. Since then, during particularly hard sessions of of debugging or (code) reading, I use it to physically point at code/text. Sometimes with both hands. It forces me to actually pay attention to the thing I point at. In this way it also helps spotting tokens that would otherwise be skipped, like the…

NYC MTA: Video: Why Are Subway Conductors Pointing All The Time?>http://gothamist.com/2013/10/30/feel_good_video_straphangers...