Students spend their hours learning detail. The details of a subject, how it is organized, what are the theories needed to solve specific problems, or who were the main characters at a certain point in history, literature, or philosophy.
On the surface, adults seem to have been freed from detail the minute they finish their years in school. Life doesn’t appear to require us to have at our fingertips the amount of detail that was demanded of us in school.
Watching YouTube videos, Netflix, TV, or Facebook never requires immersion into detail. In fact life, many times distorts our presumed understanding of detail by allowing us to be swept up in the emotion of a topic. Our biases and prejudices further complicate our understanding of the objective detail in our daily lives.
What we miss is that paying attention to detail in our adult life is very, very important in order to get traction in our lives. As mentioned, on the surface it doesn’t appear so. Detail is where the understanding of stuff leads to better decisions, more effective oversight, and better results.
In talking with people over the years that have been more successful financially, there is level of understanding of detail that they can easily recite during a conversation. They can communicate easily how one small part of something fits with another.
The same holds true for people I have met with high emotional IQs. They noticed the small things in another person that helped them quickly understand them better. In talking with them I am always fascinated how much they gleaned from a short interaction with another person.
The specialist also has a grasp of detail that is greater then our own. The professional has domain knowledge that is more specific than ours. The practitioner, through trial and error, develops the experience to understand the details in areas where they have spent time.
Detail is everywhere. Not paying attention to detail is seductive but worthless if you want to get ahead and realize some of your goals. Don’t be lazy. It takes work to use the detail in your life to your advantage. It can help you in so many ways, once again, if you are willing to try.