The Eye That Recognizes What Truly Matters

The difference between recognizing what lies beneath appearances and missing it can shape an entire life, columnist Seo Gwang-won writes.

He begins with Christopher Nolan’s film “The Odyssey,” whose characters repeatedly succeed or fail according to what they can recognize. Troy fell because its people failed to see the Trojan horse for what it was. Odysseus’s men nearly remained pigs because they did not understand the reality of the witch Circe. Odysseus himself survived by recognizing Circe and by reading the feelings of his crew.

The same ability appears in nature. Wolves can infer when and where a deer passed from a single strand of fur. Sharks can detect prey from a drop of blood in a vast area of sea. Such specialized senses help animals quickly identify what affects their survival.

The column also recalls composer Park Seong-hun’s account of discovering the unknown singer Joo Hyun-mi after hearing a practice tape at his former workplace. The company showed little interest, but Park recognized her voice and asked to develop her. She later became a defining trot singer of her era.

Seo points to a Japanese research team that studied how graduate students’ laboratory roles related to their later achievements. Students in conventional laboratories generally handled experiments while professors designed the research. Those who participated in the early, direction-setting stage initially published fewer papers, but after about three years their performance became much stronger. Searching for direction amid uncertainty, the column argues, can develop the ability to recognize what matters.