Absentminded

Def: Deep in thought and heedless of present circumstances or activities; preoccupied.

Recently I was referred to as being absentminded.  While this was not news to me, as I have been called numerous synonymous names from time to time (ie 'aloof', 'going to the beat of my own drummer', and 'on another planet'), the label, for some reason, did stir me to question what the causes, symptoms, benefits, and consequences are of being absentminded.

According to Wikipedia:

Absent-mindedness can refer to three very different things:

1. a low level of attention ("blanking" or “zoning out”);
2. intense attention to a single object of focus (hyperfocus) that makes them oblivious to events around them; or
3. unwarranted distraction of attention from the object of focus by irrelevant thoughts or environmental events.

 

And here is what Wikipedia has to say about consequences of absentmindedness:

Lapses of attention are clearly a part of everyone’s life. Some are merely inconvenient, such as missing a familiar turn-off on the highway, and some are extremely serious, such as failures of attention that cause accidents, injury, or loss of life.^[1] Beyond the obvious costs of accidents arising from lapses in attention there is lost time, efficiency, personal productivity, and quality of life in the lapse and recapture of awareness and attention to everyday tasks. Individuals for whom intervals between lapses are very short are typically viewed as impaired.^[2]Given the prevalence of attentional failures in everyday life and the ubiquitous and sometimes disastrous consequences of such failures, it is rather surprising that relatively little work has been done to directly measure individual differences in everyday errors arising from propensities for failures of attention.

While absentmindedness can lower productivity, it can be good by allowing the analytical mind to hyperfocus.  Several highly-praised thinkers have been given the absentminded label.  Among them include Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, Albert Einstein, and Archimedes (among, I'm sure, many others).  I would like to know famous women who are absentminded.  

Are absentminded women as highly praised as men?  Women traditionally need to be more alert and organized in order to run a home and keep track of needs of family members.  How do absentminded women cope?  What kind of mates are best for absentminded women?  How well are they able to raise children?

For my own self, being absentminded is a blessing and a curse.  While getting ready this morning I was watching Frans Lanting's amazing TED slideshow of Life on my laptop.  I love how wrapped up I get with things that I love - the slideshow brought me to tears and riveted my attention.  So much so, however, that I completely forgot my need to get ready within a timely manner...needless to say, I leave the house most every morning running out my door.

Irregardless, I love musing.  I love expanding my mind, exploring, and thinking.  I am on this quest to understand the patterns of life (the natural world).  Once I understand the patterns of life, I feel that it is my mission to inspire awareness of these brilliant designs in hopes toelicit action towards protecting our threatened ecosystems.