# Unseeing — Gwern Branwen

Source: https://gwern.net/unseeing . Verbatim excerpts cached for the skill.

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From "Learning To Unsee" (on why you can't see your own work/data clearly):

> For example, you can't find typos in your own writing without a great deal of effort because you know what it's *supposed* to say; so copyediting advice runs like 'read it out loud' or 'print it out and read it' or 'wait a week' or recite until gibberish or even 'read it upside down' (easier than it sounds). That's the sort of thing it takes to force you to read what you actually wrote, and not what you thought you wrote. Similar tricks are used for learning drawing: a face is too familiar, so instead you can flip it in a mirror and try to copy it.

From the "Confirmation Bias" section (on anomalies):

> Even a single 'anomaly', apparently trivial in itself, can indicate the everyday mental model is not just a little bit wrong, but *fundamentally* wrong