A fundamental habit humans have is to look for patterns wherever possible. It is an essential method allowing us as humans to learn from one another. It also provides us with a mechanism to establish habits and automate some of our activities and behavioral patterns.

It is tempting to relate to this habit as if we have been able to give ourselves templates enabling our success or prohibiting it. Even more so, assuming that such patterns can be changed in the same way templates can be edited.

When approaching our ability to establish and use patterns in such a way our risk is to assume that they have been established for any kind of situation and state. That is, to see us as faultless and able to control situations, ourselves, and maybe even others.

The other risk we’ll engage in is that we’ll invalidate experiences we encounter that contradict our expectations. It is how we create blind spots for ourselves and disable our ability to learn and become curious about new experiences.