The past few weeks I watched the Sherlock Holmes series with Benedict Cumberbatch. I had already seen a number of episodes in the past, and at the time I was quite impressed. Now that I’ve watched all episodes of the first three seasons, of which there are unfortunately only nine, I’m even more impressed. The way he observes and deduces is impressive, and at the same time shows my own flawed skills in it. By the way, I’m also curious how good your skills are.
The Sherlock Holmes series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman is set in 2010’s Londen. So a modern Sherlock Holmes. A narcissistic man, or as he likes to say; a high functioning sociopath. One with an enormous amount of knowledge, a very sharp perception and a very strong deductive skill. “You see, but you don’t observe,” he regularly says to his companion John Watson. I almost find it unfortunate that the man does not exist in real life. And perhaps even more unfortunate that I do not have such skills myself. The Sherlock Holmes series has revealed my own shortages.
For those who don’t know the series; this short video shows he can derive a lot of knowledge by observing both people and objects. This video also shows the asshole he can be. Season 1, Episode 3: The Great Game. (Text continues below video.)
Of course, Sherlock can’t do everything on his own. In the city he has his so-called homeless network. These homeless people watch everything that happens in the city and as soon as certain people start behaving differently or as soon as certain events take place, they inform Sherlock. The homeless are his so-called eyes and ears in the city.
When I recently spoke to a friend about my website, he sent me a band that I should check out. Now quite a few friends regularly send music to me and I have to confess that I often don’t make time to listen to it. This is perhaps an error of mine; after all, people send the music to me for a reason. The music means something to them and they want me to hear it too. And of course I like it myself when someone makes an effort to listen to music that I send to them, where ‘like’ is quite an understatement.
I also talked to that friend that I want to put some form of interaction into this website. After all, I share everything that touches me and makes me think, but it’s also nice to see what is important to others. That way I can also discover new things myself. In that sense, I would then have to create my own homeless network, consisting of friends and readers. This gives them the opportunity to share with me everything they notice, what inspires them or what makes them think. If they share something interesting, then that’s nice. And if not, I can just apply the Sherlock method; shout “boring!” if I’m not interested in it. He is very selective, something I am sometimes myself (apparently there’s a similarity between him and me).
When I said to that friend that I would like to add an interactive part to my website and would like to receive suggestions from, among others, him, he said that many things are inspiring him right now and that he needs time to work everything out, but that through that elaboration he learns from it himself. I realized that I do that myself by writing posts for this website. I learn by writing about topics that interest me. In a way including my own homeless network.
(“You see, but you don’t observe.” You saw this blank line and you noticed that it is normally not there, so you looked for something. You didn’t just see, you also observed. Well done!)
As I mentioned earlier I realized that I think it would be cool to have such skills as Sherlock myself; that by looking at something or someone and paying attention to details you can learn a lot about that person or about certain objects. Obviously someone does not simply have those skills, but you have to learn something like that. When I thought about that, I realized that I have a book about body language in my bookcase. The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease to be precise. Received from a friend in 2015 for my birthday. He told me at the time that he randomly picked up a book from his own bookcase to give as a present, and he thought I’d like this book. It took 4,5 years, but he was right. I finally started reading it.
Interestingly enough, that book begins with a quote from Mr. Holmes. Let’s see if I can start developing the Sherlock in myself.
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