Recently, I was reflecting on this thinking model long distance view vs short distance view.
Most of our thinking is based on what we consume for information – whether newspapers, books, social media, or TV media. How many times we stop and reflect on what we read?
When I discuss any topic with my friends who are either here or far away from me in a different country, I realize a flaw in my own thinking. The flaw seems to be either party ignores long distance view and a short-distance view.
Long Distance View
Let’s take an example of long-distance view. So I live in Minneapolis which is far away from my native country India. Now when I read or look at things happening in India, my view or thinking is based on what I read in newspapers or media. Is this an accurate view?
I doubt it is the truth.
The long-distance view can amplify the errors that are happening. Like when I see the Covid situation in India, I see so many administration errors. But this is not the entire truth. I felt the situation in India is very severe. And it is. There is no denying it. This thinking makes you overreact. Overreacting can be good if it is precautionary. Like last year, when most Governments around the world announced lockdown in respective countries, my first reaction was that we should stop inter-state travel in India. That was important from Covid perspective.
The problem with this view is it limited to what you read, what you consume as information, not exact reality. There is no ground reality. I call this Social Media Effect.
How much can you trust this information? It all depends. Finding the truth from this information is the hardest job. We make our opinions based on this information without verifying if any of this information is true or not.
This is also known as the macro view. The advantage of long distance view is the errors and flaws one can view from far away which are not visible when close to the subject.
Short Distance View
On the other hand, there is a short distance view. Short Distance view is the thinking when you are close to the subject. Like if you asked me what happened in Minneapolis, I can tell you that more objectively than if you asked me about India.
Short distance view offers more ground reality. This can be an objective truth. I see something and I tell about it in my own words. Is this the truth?
It still depends. This is based on individuals, so has a more bottom-up approach.
This is also known as a micro view. The advantage of short-distance view is knowing more ground reality. The major disadvantage is ignoring the errors and thinking everything is ok.
If one can combine a long-distance view and a short-distance view, it can be beneficial to improve the situation of the subject.
In another way, to look at all this is when we take any microbes and watch them under a microscope. Their behavior to bare eyes is not visible, but it is completely different under a microscope.
Conclusion
In this post, I showed long distance view vs short distance view. Many times when we are looking at the micro view, we ignore the macro view. This is a blind spot in thinking. Make sure you cover this blind spot.