The Hunt

George Nelson wrote about this exercise in How To See, a 1977 book about sharpening your own perception and seeing the built world with fresh eyes. Rob Walker picked it up forty years later in The Art of Noticing as one of 131 exercises in looking more closely.

What Nelson discovered: the hunt changes how you move through a city. You start to notice things you’ve ignored for years. The number 7 is everywhere, once you start looking for it. Then you spend three weeks failing to find a 4.

“Doesn’t that sound awesome?”
— ROB WALKER, AUTHOR OF THE ART OF NOTICING

Our game “The Hunt” is a tool for carrying out the hunt in the digital age. Log your finds, add photos, tag the location, and watch your grid slowly fill — the way Nelson’s slide carousel did, one number at a time.

The game is unlocked for friends and family only and even includes a league play mode. The first round is about hunting numbers from 1 to 100. The game mode is extensible; the next round could be “Alphabet,” for example.