Pattern Recognition – Elephant
Now, quickly, turn your head. Whit your head turned, did you think there was anything wrong with the elephant? Most likely
not.
How many legs does the elephant have? Two? Too Many?
This gets back to your brain’s ability to recognize patterns. We saw the elephant, our brains said OK, an elephant, and we moved on. It wasn’t until I called attention to the elephant’s legs did you make your brain stop telling your everything was OK with the elephant that your brain let you look at it objectively.
Recognizing patterns is a shortcut that our brains use to process information quickly based on past experience. If you are standing on a curb and a large metal rectangular object is getting bigger, your brain doesn’t have to tell you it’s the 5:14 Cross-Town Commuter bus, all it has to do is yell “STOP!”
“Why does mathematics give preferential treatment to even numbers?
Odd x odd is odd, even x even is even, and even x odd is even.”
Lon Safko
Serial Innovator, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Innovative Thinking
Tags: innovative thinking, creative, creative thinking, Innovation, critical thinking definition, innovation definition, critical thinking skills, creative process
