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Understanding Patterns: How Your Brain Thinks

Author: Sean D'Souza

twins

Imagine you went to a friend’s house today.

You’re in your friend’s kitchen.

And you see a chair.

And you sit down on that chair.

How do you know it’s safe to sit on that chair?

But even more interestingly, how do you know it’s a chair in the first instance?

Your brain worked out the pattern, didn’t it?

It figured out, that if the chair looked like a chair, then it must be a chair.

The chair you picked may be orange, and you’ve never sat in an orange chair before, but hey the brain still sees it as a chair.

And even if the chair didn’t have four legs. Even if it had just one central beam, your brain still sees the chair as a chair.

This is the simplicity of patterning

You see the chair. You sit on it.

A five-month old baby sees it.

And slams into it. Bumps into it. Stares at it.
And isn’t sure what to do with it.

The patterns are clear in your brain. The patterns ain’t that clear in the brain of that baby.

Which brings us to why some people seem so talented

They just see patterns we don’t see (not yet, anyway!)

But here’s the really frustrating part.

If you ask a ‘talented’ person what they’re seeing, they can’t explain what’s really happening.

So if you asked the famous artist Picasso, what patterns he saw before he drew a masterpiece, he may not have been able to give you an answer. And yet, he was seeing patterns.

But patterns at such high speed that most talented people can’t tell you what they’re seeing.

These um, talented people simply draw, or sing, or dance. They can’t describe to you the pattern (in most cases).

So how do we know it’s a pattern after all?

Because of the repetition.

Picasso’s first drawing may not look exactly like the next, but try as he may, the next drawing will have an overlap of the first.

A dancer may do a completely different dance routine, but hey, there’s the style coming through. And what is style, but a pattern?

Artists, dancers, heck even criminals follow a pattern.

But because we can’t see the pattern at normal speed, we think it’s talent.

Yes, you have a talent for spotting a chair.
Yes, you have a talent for sitting down on a chair.

But can you explain that talent to me?

No you can’t.

Because it’s happening too fast in your brain. And that’s exactly what’s happening in the brains of so-called talented people.

But let’s do the impossible shall we?

Let’s slow down patterns so that you can see them.

Aha…now that would be something eh?

Then the so-called talent wouldn’t be so magical after all. But how do we slow things down? That’s the question. And yes, there’s an answer.

Amazing as it may sound, there’s a simple, logical answer.

But hey, that answer will come in another article.

For now, look around and see your magnificent brain. And how it seems to recognise patterns all the time.

You are indeed talented at recognising patterns.

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Filed Under: Psychological Marketing Tagged With: human behavior, Human Nature, information products, learning, psychoclogical tactics

Comments

  1. Honor says

    June 24, 2010 at 10:03 pm

    Sean this rings many bells for me. Thanks for sharing yet another thought provoking article that makes us think, reflect, review, ponder, cogitate, and all those other funky brain function related words : )

    Reply
  2. Dorothy says

    June 24, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    Can’t wait until next installment on this subject.

    I’ve often wondered why left handed people seem to be so talented in various areas. They may be book smart, but one reason they are is that they seem to perceive deeper truths, and remember them.

    Another thing I’ve wondered about left handed people is whether their brains operate like right handed people’s. Does the left side of their brain deliver the logical, sequential, measured information, with the right side unlettered and unnumbered, supplying vast amounts of creative juice? Or is their brain working just the opposite?

    A vast number of people will tell you that they started out left handed or ambidexterous and had to be trained to use their right hand only.

    There’s more to this than we know. Fascinating subject and so glad you’re applying it to marketing.

    Reply

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