Think like a Shark

I am a firm believer in the power of a lunchtime walk, and I am fortunate enough to sometimes be able to get my steps in around Chester’s wonderful zoo.

With an anxious mind troubled by a work problem that felt too big to solve, I decided to take a break and found myself wandering into the zoo’s?shark?exhibit.

As a Designer, I couldn’t help but admire the?shark’s aesthetic—the dark-on-top, light-on-bottom counter-shaded body, the elegant sweep and taper of the dorsal fin, and those eyes. Deep and mysterious, as they stare they tell me that in the vast ocean, we all play a role in the food chain—and we are not necessarily at the top.

It is in the evolution of those eyes that we find the fundamental difference between the great white and the hammerhead?shark:?vision.??In the words of the late Faithless frontman Maxi Jazz, "You don’t need eyes to see, you need vision” (Faithless Reverence 1996).

Both the great white?shark?(Carcharodon carcharias) and the great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) have eyes, but while the hammerhead’s give the distinctive?shark?its name and a wide field of vision, the great white utilises a focused sight.

It was then I untangled my muddled head, realising I could take an evolutionary lesson from these extraordinary creatures. I needed to approach the issue in hand like a hammerhead looking broadly at the bigger picture; see the full project filling the frame, then I can hone in on bite sized pieces like a great white, picking them off one by one, more digestible and easier to swallow.

"That’s it!" I thought. I need to be a?shark, or rather two?sharks. Initially like a hammerhead with focus spanning wide, but also a great white with a predatory precision.

Time to push myself up the food chain with a?sharklike 'plan of attack'!