Would you say you are overly observant or rarely notice

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I would like to know if anyone finds that they are overly observant or rarely notice.

Here are the criteria for each:

Overly observant:
Quick to perceive or comprehend. Able to pick out details (not patterns) that go unnoticed even to other observers and deduce things from them that you CAN express and are accurate 90+ percent of the time. (Beyond a good guess) People tell you (not you tell them) that you are overly observant.
Example: Knowing someone owns a dog within five minutes of meeting them without the person ever stating that they do, know the size and know the hair color. (If you need to ask how you would know then you would fit in either the 'neither' or the 'rarely notice' categories.)

Rarely notice:
Have trouble realizing what you or others are doing. Don't remember where things are or find that you missed something that had to be pointed out to you. This occurs more often than not. People tell you that you are oblivious (not you tell them) or some other form to describe that you miss things a lot.
Example: You visit someone for the first time who has a dog and the dog remains laying on the floor and didn't interact, when asked about the dog later while no longer there you say, "What dog?" (overly generalized example replace dog with other item if it fits.)

Last edited by kicker on 04 Feb 2014, 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I would say that I can be plenty of both, depending on the situation. I can be very observant when I actually bother to pay attention, but I tend to miss out on a lot of details if I'm focused on something else.

I would call that an example of the "Fictional Type," because they only exist in Sherlock Holmes stories.

Well we now know what you like to watch.

More rarely notice than observant, when at home.

I get how you might figure out that someone owns a dog, what size it is and what colour, but surely you'd have to be an expert to figure out the breed?

Anyway, I'm the sort of person who notices all sorts of details others don't, but might walk into a lamp post or in front of a car while I'm doing so. Not sure which option that is

I will venture to be more careful in the future. Sometimes it is really difficult to gauge the intended audience. It has been edited.

This. I've done this, with PEOPLE. My supervisor wondered out loud whether I had brain damage because I didn't notice when someone came into the room and started speaking to her (we had been the only two people in a room the size of a closet and I was watching something she was doing). Another time I didn't notice when someone came and sat at my lunch table of three people and talked with one of them for an hour. Once I didn't notice when someone I saw and interacted with every week suddenly wasn't pregnant anymore (embarrassing!) My level of obliviousness freaks people out to the point that they wonder how I function. I sometimes wonder how many of my difficulties would go away if I could just pay attention to my environment properly.

It depends. In the world around me not usually. Although I will often point out some interesting feature on a building that no one else ever noticed - stuff like that. But like at home if anything has been moved or changed in any way, it really gets my attention.

Mostly oblivious, except when hypervigilent.

I will intensely notice certain things, like the contours of my physical environment - things moved, colors changed, new items - and with people, it's usually the physical aspects - new glasses or hair or clothing items - socks that are not a perfect match - stuff like that...but what someone says, or does, or social aspects of other people's interactions - that I still have to work at and often will be naively oblivious. I'm pretty good with children, but with adults - I think I've improved...but it has taken a lifetime.

When I was in my twenties I worked for a company (decades ago) that had people doing major illegal stuff (drug shipments etc...trips to South America by the boss on his private plane etc...) I had NO idea what these guys were up to - I was just blithely doing my assigned projects - highly technical artwork applications - which was the cover business for the real money making operations. So while I was paying acute attention to my kilns and the art process, major sh*t was going down right under my nose (and no I didn't smell or see anything). I had no interest or involvement in the office end of the business, or how the legitimate products were marketed - I just did my work, collected my pittance and ...

I ended up quitting after I got pregnant and decided not to continue because of possible chemical exposures in the working process...And I was totally shocked when the boss and one of his main partners got busted a few months after I left...turned out my husband at the time was fully aware of the whole situation along with about half the other people I hung out with...and yeah, that whole scene imploded a few years later, too.

Last edited by BornThisWay on 04 Feb 2014, 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have nothing better to do in high school than observe. I would consider myself overly observant.

Sometimes the one, sometimes the other. Seldom in between, if ever.

Today my mom said to me "John, sometimes if I need information from you and i'm pressed for time, it's the most annoying thing, because you are so over articulate. ITS REALY ANNOYING". I'm not surprised really, while I don't talk very much I still do have quite a bit to say. One of my primary problems is hypervigilance, go figure. /shrug

I can notice minute detail in a picture of something that I'm interested in, say a bike or someone fishing. Friends are always amazed when I tell them I could tell where they caught a nice sized fish, from the detail in the background. But if I come home before my wife, and the dog has knocked something from the kitchen counter onto the floor, I can step right over it 3-4 times before I notice it. I tend not to notice clutter.

I never notice what others do. However, I am pretty perceptive to things that other people are oblivious to (I can sense that certain charming people are jerks/liars, which NTs can't because they are overcome by the charm).