even the most basic, I think just simple creativity, innovation, being an entrepreneur, being a coach, being a manager, all of these things really depend on having some ability to notice things and pay attention to that other people overlooked.

And if you're constantly just looking in the same direction

that everyone else is looking in,

because the culture is telling you to look that way,

you are never going to see anything original

or notice anything original.

I'm Jocelyn K. Gly, and this is Hurry Slowly,

a podcast about pacing yourself,

where I explore how you can find more creativity and meaning in your daily work through the simple act of slowing down.

Today, our subject is looking slowly, and my guest is journalist Rob Walker, whose work I had been following now for over a decade. Rob is a cultural anthropologist of sorts and really just a keen, all-around

observer of humans who has written two long-running columns for the New York Times. The first was consumed in the early

aughts, which analyzed the way we expressed our identity through the acquisition of stuff.

And then later, workologist, an advice column for the modern workplace. Most recently, Rob

published a lovely little book called The Art of Noticing,

which collects a series of exercises designed to help you drag your attention away from your phone

and re-engage with the world around you through all five senses. Now, it's easy, I think, when you hear the word noticing,

to dismiss it. It sounds like small potatoes, a luxury for those of us with time to spare,

like stopping to smell the roses or picking up a shiny penny on the ground. But it's actually

so much more. In this conversation,

Rob and I talk about noticing as the stepping stone to meeting fascinating new people,

to having deeper, more meaningful conversations, and last, but certainly not least, to making

powerful, creative work.

...