Magicians in the Chiller industry.... Why is this engineer making you focus on a single detail?

During my last flight on the way to Bangkok to join a conference with the World Bank, to kill boredom, I opened the latch in front of me and started playing with the in flight entertainment system. While scanning for something to watch, I took notice of the movie " Now you see me".

At about halfway of the film, something came to my mind...

There are magicians in the chiller industry!!

Now you may ask me, why? Why so? How is this related? What's the movie all about?

Well, since this might be outright preposterous, first let me first explain what the movie is all about...

Its about these group of magicians of different trades (Expert in hypnosis, Escape artist, misdirection, etc. to name a few). These guys are pulled out and recruited by a mystery magician that is supposedly "one of the greats" to join an elite group. After they have been enticed to join this secret circle, they were assigned some tasks to perform so that they would be officially in the group. After several stunts they now pull off extraordinary tricks like robbing a bank in Paris while they're in the US. Thus, they get into trouble with the police, FBI, etc. and the movie turns into a cat and mouse chase between the group and the authorities. Its a good movie to watch and I suggest that you guys check it out as well if you have a chance.

So, basically, the movie is about magic; now how then it is related to the chiller industry?

Second, allow me to pull out a quote from the movie.

The more you look, the less you see....

More you think you see, the easier it is to fool you....

One of the greatest tools for a magician as explained in the movie is misdirection. When a magician moves his hands and says to you "look at this" and or creates whatever scene he wants you to see, the closer you look, the less you will see what he/they are really doing. He directs your attention to what he wants you to see so that you will be tricked or believe that the magic is real.

Now look at this image and lets do a little exercise:

:
Tell me what do you see??? Just keep it on your mind for a while...

The normal response of a person would be "I see the black heart".

uhm, Dont worry, there is no right or wrong response in this exercise and this is just to explain how people see things.

Right now, when you stare more at the image and think about it more you will now realize that there's another response to the question...

How about the big red area that surrounds the heart? The area is even bigger than the shape but it wasn't your first response right?

Did you take notice of it at first? Well, this I guess is the normal process of the mind and this little exercise is just to show what "misdirection" is. The more you focus on minute details, the less you see the entirety of things.

Well, here it is, the answer to how it is related to the Chiller Industry...

The reason for it is that there are a number of people in the industry that market their products based on minute details. Marketing strategies of most of the people in the chiller industry would tell you to focus on one thing... Things like refrigerant choice... Like refrigerant phase outs and whatnot... To concentrate on full and or part load only...

A perfect example of this is stuff being said about toxicity of refrigerants. They hide facts from you and don't even tell you that OSHA classifies common substances like salt, vinegar, and Vitamin A to be more toxic than the refrigerants used in the market today in terms of acute toxicity.

These people will influence you to choose one over the other. They will not tell you what are the pros and cons of all choices, they will make you focus on one thing, make you look more into it then eventually make you make a not so technically sound decision. These people are what I call "magicians" since they use misdirection on how they market their products.

So, next time, when you encounter these "magicians", open your eyes and look closely at what facts they are hiding so that you wouldn't be fooled into thinking that the topic they are pointing to you at is the only important factor into making a sound decision.