Look

A powerful exploration of how we pay attention that will transform the ways we connect with one another—at work, at home, and beyond We’ve forgotten how to pay attention, Christian Madsbjerg says in Look. Though we’re not born with them, listening carefully and observing intentionally are crucial human skills. And because of the ubiquity of social media, our increasing social isolation, and our use of empty imagery as a stand-in for direct observation, we’ve lost the ability to interpret the world at a moment when we desperately need to do that. To counteract this, Madsbjerg—a consultant and a professor at the New School in New York City—began to coteach a course called Human Observation, which lays out the ways that all of us can learn how to pay attention. The course has been hugely popular since its inception, with hundreds of students signing up for it every semester and hundreds more filling waiting lists. In Look, Madsbjerg sets out the key observational skills needed to show us how we can recapture our ability to pay attention effectively. Using examples from around the world as well as from his own life, he offers both practical insights and a dynamic approach to rethinking observation that highlight how we can learn to see with more empathy and connect with others.