Tuesday, November 1, 2011

New Drivers and Cheetahs

The summer before I turned sixteen I attended a Driver’s Ed class, you know the place where a bunch of “just over the crest of puberty but still in the hormone jungle” kids learn to drive, great place. Before we ever got behind the wheel of the car there were several classes on how to drive, going over the mechanics of driving and of course short videos of death and dismemberment.  These necessary classes garnered little attention from a group that was more concerned about how to get to the mall than the average reaction time when confronted with immediate stops.  Although I can be lumped in with the mall crowd something from one of the “pre-driving” classes stuck with me,   a human can only see as fast as it walks.  The thought is that when a person begins to drive he or she cannot “see” as fast as the car goes and over time your eyes adjust to the vehicle's speed.  This adjustment time isn’t the first few minutes spent behind the wheel,  or just giving your eyes time to correct.  This process takes months or even years based on how much a person drives.  This same concept translates over to the cheetah.  A cheetah is able to see as fast as it runs, pick out prey and identify obstacles along the way.  In the same way a strategic planner can only think as far as he has been conditioned, similar to barely-post pubescent teenage drivers and cheetahs.

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