The old parable of the blind men and the elephant goes something like this:
A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: “We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable”. So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, “This being is like a thick snake”. For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, “is a wall”. Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.
Wikipedia, retrieved January 25, 2026.
All of them are partially right – and they are each getting the whole of it wrong. I love this story – and you can feel free to enjoy many different interpretations of it.
Here is one take that I think has very real implications for everyday life. Each in our own ways, we are all blind.
The things you see also distract you from those you do not see, in more than one way.
Your focus naturally implies what you are not focused on, so one focused perspective necessarily excludes others. You cannot look at a large object from the front and at the same time have a great view from its back, top and bottom. When you are focused forward, what is behind is in your blind spot. Your perspective affects how you think.
Mental blind spots are of course biases. In your effort to navigate your world you reason and explain, using the tools that work for you. You categorize and stereotype, attribute and label. You have a maybe decent idea of what is going on in your own head, but know so much less about anyone else. The catalogue of mental biases is long and even knowing about them is only so helpful.
The seeing is often not accompanied by a sense of uncertainty about the seen, but rather confidence: We reason about what appears to be there (or comes to mind) rather than intuitively wonder about what may be missing. It is easy to imagine the original story continuing with the men arguing vehemently, perhaps fighting, in order to defend their convictions against those who do not properly see. That disagreement is not because the reasoning is necessarily bad. It is based on incomplete images.
All of this is easy to miss when you are sure you are seeing just fine. Distancing is useful, but the story is not really about other people who do not get it. You are one of them. We all are.
Your mental picture is virtually guaranteed to be a partial one. Think of the (fragments of) elephants around you.