This is a good one. Did you know that the average ‘dwell time’ (horrible phrase) for the Mona Lisa is 17 seconds? In other words, the amount of time people spend looking at the most famous painting in the world is a quarter of a minute.
What are they looking at? What are they looking for?
I’m using this ‘fact’ as an opener for a workshop with PWC in Warsaw. The point isn’t so much that looking for longer with reveal something of importance (although it may) but that deep looking will reveal other, non-related, thoughts that could have considerable value.
Try it today. Fix your eyes on something, a tree, a cloud, a building, for between 3-5 minutes (please don’t select a phone or computer or anything that moves or makes a disruptive sound) and literally ‘see’ what happens.
A friend of mine was looking to buy a house and on his second visit, one of the things he did was to test all the plug sockets in the house by plugging in his own small desk lamp. Apparently the estate agent and seller were mortified and tutted at him because it took a while.
His point was that when you buy a car, you test most of the functions in the car, and a house should be the same.
You test drive a car for say, 15-30 minutes, but most people spend less time in a new house they are looking to purchase. You spend thousands on a car, and hundreds of thousands on a house, so one would expect to spend more time in the house you’re buying!
I wonder how long the ‘dwell time’ is for people in an Apple store looking at a gadget, compared to the Mona Lisa?