First Impression-Blindness

I’ve been studying Bruce Lee since 2018. If you had asked me at any point who his wife was, I would have told you with 100% certainty: Linda Lee Caldwell.

Yesterday, I looked her up again, and I noticed the list of her spouses. Her last husband’s name? Bruce Cadwell. “Hmm, Cadwell. Cadwell. Wait. Oh my god!” I glanced over to the title of her Wikipedia page, and sure enough: Her name is Linda Lee Cadwell. There is no “l” before the “d” in her last name.

How can someone misremember a name they’ve seen dozens, maybe hundreds of times? First impression–blindness. You see it once, your brain takes a picture, and swoosh, it’s filed away. “Ahh, I know this, got it. Moving on.” Except when, well, you don’t actually know this.

Every now and then, take a second look—especially at the intimately familiar.

Nik

Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.