I had a peculiar experience today looking for a particular garment in a folded stack. The shirt I was wanted was floral, but much of my attention was occupied with stuff that’s on my mind, and somehow the “seeking” part of my brain decided that it was looking for a white shirt. I went through the pile twice on autopilot before the lack of success woke me up enough to [a] notice that [b] I hadn’t found the shirt, and [c] that’s because I was looking for a white shirt when the “mission accomplished” message would only be activated by finding a print one.

Once I looked for the floral, it only took a moment to find it.

I was struck by the process, though. It’s interesting on so many levels: the auto-search, the potential for confusing search goals, the role of attention and inattention in defining, tracking, and tallying goals.

How often in life do we not find what we’re looking for because what we’re looking for isn’t actually what we’re looking for?