Hunters in our Midst

The following is a list of characteristics that are usually combined in varying proportions in strong hunter type personalities.

1. I believe that hunters can be divided into at least two distinct groups. One group displays a desire, or actual need for excitement and the other group has an intense love for creativity. Many bungee and parachute jumpers, motorcycle and race car drivers, daredevils and stunt men fall into the first group, while artist and composers, creative scientist and engineers, inventors,, innovators and entrepreneurs populate the second. As all of our experience in Project Lab has been with creative hunters, they will be the subject of this report.

2. Hunters have a unique way of concentrating that one author calls "global concentration". While concentrating, every sense is turned on and is rapidly processing information. (E.g. sight, sound, smell, feel, intuition, etc.). It is nearly impossible to sneak up on a hunter and they are usually extraordinarily observant of their environment. In the average classroom however, this characteristic becomes a liability when minor distractions constantly tug at their consciousness and compete with the teacher and/or the textbook for attention.

3. In addition to global concentration, hunters can invoke a unique level of attention and ability known as "hyper-focusing". This state of extraordinary mental activity is usually entered when trying to solve a particularly interesting or difficult problem or situation. While hyper-focusing, the hunter can bring powerful mental energy to bear on the problem at hand. For the duration of this unique experience, she/he has little sense of time, hunger, or the needs of others. Being able to enter this state at will is usually not totally under the hunter's control and often requires an intense interest or curiosity about the subject of their focus. once started, hyper-focus can last for minutes, days or even years. The intensity of focus is such that if interrupted, it is often difficult for them to pick up where they left off once the interruption has past.

4. Hunters have an amazing ability to instantly change direction either physically or mentally with no sense of discontinuity or loss of concentration.

5. Hunters often can successfully work at several projects at the same time. They often have many unfinished projects in their lives. This in no way is distressing to them and given the required time and priorities, every project will eventually reach closure even if years intervene between start and finish.

6. Most hunters have an excess of energy and "go power". Hunters are the sprinters of society and can turn in very fast times over the short to medium haul.

7. Hunters tend to intuitively drift towards a filing system of "stacks" in which items are logically located by an image-based, relational position system. This seems more functional and natural than the usual filing system based on key words.

8. Hunters have a vibrant creative power which they use to overcome or circumvent obstacles which stand in the way of solving their problems. Their brains are continuously bubbling with myriad of ideas which for the most part, are ideas that are uncalled for and never made use of. Some believe that it is from this sea of ideas that new connections spawn the hunter's special brand of creativity. There is no doubt that this bubbling of ideas is distracting. One of the common laments of strong hunter personality is that if they leave their work to get something from an adjoining room, when they get to that room, they have totally forgotten what they went there to get. It seems that on the way between the rooms, their minds, momentarily distracted from problem solving mode, produced dozens of interesting ideas which totally obscured the thought of the item that they were after.

9. Hunters possess a strong sense of their own capabilities and how to use them right up to the breaking point, but never exceeding that point.

10. Many hunters live in a forty-eight hour window that moves with them through time. The past and future emerge and fade, somewhat as does a driver's view when traveling through dense fog. Hunters have a powerful sense of living in, and working with the present, while feeling little encumbrance from the past or motivation by the future. Important knowledge that they will need in the future, that is presented to them in the present, seems to have little relevance and often is described as boring. on the other hand, they rejoice in and receive great satisfaction while acquiring knowledge needed to solve immediate problems encountered in their immediate project. The student that was assigned a theme three weeks ago, but seems incapable of writing it until the day before it is due, is probably a hunter. Farmers call this procrastination, but it is not nearly that simple.

11. Hunters are PROCESS oriented and live for the "right now" thrill of outwitting their prey and overcoming obstacles as the hunt proceeds. The end "Product" (the kill) is an anti-climax which represents the end of the joy of the hunt. This characteristic is clearly seen in modern day hunters who are hunting for solutions to problems or new concepts to explain physical behavior. These special people derive great satisfaction from using their creativity in overcoming the problems encountered in finding solutions. The tangible results (end product) of their efforts might be described as simply a by-product of their pleasure while building and learning. This trait is so strong that in many cases the hunter only has to come close enough to be able to visualize a solution before they set off on another project, leaving the actual implementation to someone else.

12. Hunters often have very practical minds and develop projects that will work perfectly, but will usually lack a finished or aesthetic appearance. Once the major problems are solved, they are ready for a new challenge and usually leave it up to someone else to make things pretty.

13. Hunters usually do not do well with repetitious non-challenging work. Three years seems to be about the longest time a modern hunter can stand such jobs, no matter how good the pay or how strong the incentive.