Few days back, read news on “Iranian scientist discovered the time machine”. His device can predicts future events of the “next 5-8 years” with 98% accuracy (not sure about its authenticity).
This took me by surprise, a pure shocker. I was not as surprised by the “news” as much with idea of “how we can predict” future. The question is obviously not new but “how on Earth” such thing is possible! If you are not shocked, then you probably need some time alone to think because it just not as simple as it looks.
Onto a quest to answer, I concentrated my thought process on “how mind works” Never, I’d thought so deeply. It was incredible. Nevertheless, getting back to where we’re.
“Recognizing patterns” crossed my mind many times while I was busy figuring out. Thus, to channel it into a hypothesis I analyzed my friends (flatmates) and team members at work. After few days of observation, I come to conclude that everybody follows certain pattern(s) consciously or unconsciously. Patterns are what that lead us to predict few very general things like “someone is coming to talk to us” or “someone is about to call me” or “its gonna rain today” and many others.
To prove the claim:
I did a small experiment on one of my friend. For few days, I followed a pattern i.e. coming home from work at 6:30-6:45 PM and if I’m late then it means I’ve gone to shopping complex. Now one day, I came home at 6:30 but sat in the balcony instead of directly going to my room. I know, he (my friend) has a nasty habit of (if he knows that one of us has gone there) asking us to buy things for him. I waited for his call and as I assumed he called me at 7:30. I didn’t pick up his call and I went in after some time. He asked: “I called you. I wanted a thing or two from there (shopping complex)”; exactly as I predicted (by the way I knew he needs to buy few things as he told me about it a day earlier).
He was in-fact right as he knew my pattern. But I broke the familiar pattern and followed another. And that’s where our human mind can be defeated. All the talk about predicting future is right. It is based on calculations, analyzing day to day activities happening around the world and keeping tabs on all the latest trends. Surely, one can predict future after analyzing so passionately. It is a no brainer. But question is: how accurate could it be and that’s pretty tough to answer.
The same logic is applicable to our learning habits. You must have heard: it is comparatively easier for us to learn something new while we’re young. Have you ever thought “why so” I strongly believe the answer lies in patterns. As we get old, our brain get accustom to certain patterns. Thus, when we try something new, we feel embarrassed or shy or may feel that someone inside our brain or heart telling us not to. That is a repulsive mechanism used by brain to make us stick to old patterns.
Now, that’s how we learn languages. It depends on environment we’re brought up in. For say if we’re brought up in a British family, we would be frequent in English, if in an Indian family then Hindi, and if some other family then some other language. All this is possible because our mind is very good at recognizing and hard wiring itself on those patterns. That’s how we all grow. Actually, it is good. It protects us from many troubles but also stop us from learning new things esp. in old age.
Sports, too, follow patterns to recognize future stars. They (sports) are continuously able to produce great athletes, tennis players, and football players year after year. “Why” because they believe in evolution; they believe that past can be nurtured into present to produce future. But “how”
I don’t know about other sports but in football: Each club has a team of scouts; placed in different countries, keeping their eyes on hundreds of club matches to find young talents. They recognize patterns such as “how a player kicks” “how he moves” “how he behaves on field” “how he encourages his team members” “what he do when his team loses” and it help them to find “future Ronaldo or future Messi”. Obviously development plays a huge role but until you recognize them at young age you just can’t produce future superstars.
So, does this applicable to businesses? Yes, probably. Let’s consider Auto Industry.
Q. Did you see girls riding bike often?
A. No. “why”
It looks awkward. But “why”! because bike’s personality suits males more than it does females, I guess. But again “why is it so”
Hypothesis: It is a pattern, too. Q. How it become a worldwide pattern?
Males were more outgoing in earlier days, for some reasons, and hence we saw only males riding bikes. Since, it was a pattern in past, you probably allow your son more than your daughter to ride a bike to avoid social stigma, today. But the rise in female equality saw a significant rise in need among them for a daily transport. Since riding bike was related to males (as explained earlier) someone had to come up with a solution. Auto industry was/is smart. They recognized it and introduced scooty for females. It goes with their personality i.e slim, sexy, cute and curvy.
Bottom-Line:
1. Most of the products, out in the market today are result of some mind-boggling analysis of consumer patterns.
2. If you’re good at recognizing patterns then anything is possible: from developing yourself and your career, to introducing new consumer products and even to predicting future events.
3. God does exist: our brain is a fucking creation. And it can’t be a coincidence.
4. There is nothing as “deja-vu”. Everything has a purpose; depends how quickly we recognize it.
5. Break few patterns to learn how they work. You’ll be mesmerized.
IspiratO 