The Joy in Business

42Persistence of Perception

Q. Do you at times look for new landscapes?

A. Perhaps it’s best to see with new eyes.

Persistence of Perception is when the way you perceive your world stays the same unless you do something to change your perspective. I learned about Persistence of Perception in the laundry room. One day while I was doing laundry, the handle to the dryer fell off in my hand. I asked my husband to help fix it. He had a quick solution. If you turn the handle upside down, slide it back into the slot, pull up and pull back, you can open the dryer door.

It worked! Until the handle completely wore out. I called to him again and said his trick wasn’t working anymore. He brought over a screwdriver. He put the screwdriver in the slot, turned it to the right, pulled back, and it created just enough leverage to open the dryer door.

It was an awkward yet doable solution until the screwdriver got lost. I think it may have fallen behind the dryer. Regardless, I called to my husband again and said, “Can’t we fix this in a more permanent way?” It was a temporary solution to a permanent problem. (Have you ever used a temporary solution for a permanent problem?)

He had an idea. He came back with a huge magnet and some pliers. He put the magnet on the dryer, straddled the magnet with the pliers, squeezed really hard, pulled back, and the dryer door opened. It worked!

So I used this new system of opening the dryer door to some success for quite a while until a neighbor asked if she ...