Judging a book by its cover...

20th August 2oo6, Sunday.
Human, such as me, are difficult creatures that The One above had ever created. The problem with us, human is that we have a mind of our own. Perception often precedes sensation, in the sense that what we actually perceived as a something most of the time deviates from what we sensed, i.e. through the inborn 5 senses.

The first impression is the most intense impact that one can leave in another person's mind. This memory nonetheless, will be permanently encoded into the mind and stored in the long term memory. And the danger of this unable-to-be-erased-memory will then give the owner of the deceived mind a rough sketch and idea of how the person can be and estimating his/her abilities.

For instance, the probability of human, especially the not-so-young generations, when approached by a black and untidy looking person plus with the you-know-what look, will hold tight to their assets, i.e. wallet or handbags, is as high as 99.99%. They, or rather we, will never give a chance to let him perform to us who he is, because the human camera had already captured the image of this guy, and the brain had already chosen the information that we want to interpret. First impression, impressive huh?

Coming back from a school camp, I was truly amazed by what my mind can do. I saw no talent at all in the midst of all of them, I saw an unorganized team conducting activities, I saw deteriorating results, I saw no respects from the slightly-younger-generation, I saw looks and actions that are so potato-ish (you know? Ubi keledek. Or fan xu) and the list goes on. Yet, I was thrilled to discover that I was wrong. Most of them obviously do not have the familiar face as I have never met them before, hence my mind starts to interpret everything that I sensed, based on my exposure throughout my life and the information I chose to store in my mind, filed them up, piled them up nicely. And oh gosh, I did no justice to all of them.

Truly, everyone is talented. Some of them might looked unethical, disrespectful, pathetic, and so on, but somehow when they discover their talents and truly utilize them, they are no difference from the multi-millionaire of Malaysia ? Uncle Lim. Well, in other words, they are just a step away from success. But if, they choose to apply their skills in the wrong manner, they just deserved to be judged, and criticized.

Well, to justify myself, I found that pre-judging someone is a game to play, as I will always anticipate in their actions to find out whether they are just the way I think they were. But that obviously, only applies to those that I have never met before, or I am not familiar and confident with. Wee?