Feeling Our Way in the World

Well, it's Friday evening and Mali is hanging with me in the den. She came running when she heard Coheed and Cambria. She seems to like the upbeat music with a good bass line. It's the vibrations: because she's blind, she experiences the world through feel.

One of the things I realized as I wrote the post on emotional intelligence is that psychologists experience the world through feelings, not unlike Mali. It's the tuning into the emotional communications that tells you how to respond to what the other person is saying. Much of what I pick up from traders is not what they say, but *how* they say it. That's why I like to ask traders their view of the market. I don't care if they're bullish or bearish; I'm listening to how much conviction is in their voice.

That's also why I like to talk my thoughts out loud or write them down: I can read them as a psychologist--for their emotional content. That tells me whether to follow the feelings or not. Listening to one's own emotional communications: it's a form of emotional intelligence.

Well, Mali and I are going to crank the volume and listen to a little Paramore. A couple of blind friends feeling our way through the world.