“There is this nice jump from ‘I didn’t even notice it’ to ‘At least I noticed it’ to ‘Not only did I notice it, I took it to the next level.'” ~ Rob Walker

Periodically I set myself a curiosity scavenger hunt theme with a fixed duration – 77 days of feet, a long hot summer of art, a month of biophilia, a week in the kitchen – and then I just keep my eyes open and my camera handy.

I confess: some days it can end up feeling a little burdensome and I’ve been known to snag an end-of-day image in desperation.

But most of the time, it’s a joy. The thrill of the hunt; the challenge and delight in finding something new in the very familiar; the excuse to get outdoors, whatever the weather; the visual puns; the surprisingly sentimental moments — all culled from the everyday world around me.

It is very much in the spirit of what journalist and author Rob Walker would call “The Art of Noticing.”

There is a big hard-to-quantify, but very real, payoff (if people like a payoff) to this mindset, which is that you are being open to surprise and you are being open to chance… You are much more likely to randomly encounter something that has some payoff for you later, some inspiration.

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #254: The Art of Noticing, with Rob Walker

Rob Walker is a longtime contributor to The New York Times, a columnist for Fast Company, and on the faculty of the Products of Design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His 2019 book The Art of Noticing and newsletter by the same name are joyful little encyclopedias of attention and discovery.

He shares useful ideas, practical prompts, and unexpected inspiration that help us pay attention to what we care about — and care about what we pay attention to. 

Check out my Galleries, an assortment of what I’ve paid attention to!

I think you’ll enjoy Improv Everywhere’s Stand Here for Dance Party as much as Rob did.

If you enjoyed this conversation, you might like these C2BC Classics: #MyCuriousEyes, with Karen Ward; On Open-Earedness, with Tim McKenry; and Slow Down, with Justine Ickes.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Inessential” by Bayou Birds, via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.