Pattern seekers 👀
"If you want real control, drop the illusion of control. Let life have you. It does anyway."
—Author Byron Katie
> in my eyes | calling a car jealous
For decades now, psychologists have published one illuminating study after another giving us greater clarity over our minds and how we see and perceive the world.
One paper stands as an extraordinary example:
- Students during a 1975 study at Yale University failed to grasp the role that chance and randomness played in coin flips. ❌
The students were asked to predict the outcomes of 30 random coin tosses. Then they were asked questions about the flips.
Theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow in a 2008 book on randomness and chance described the study's findings along with what the students said:
"One-quarter reported that their performance would be hampered by distraction. Forty percent felt that their performance would improve with practice."
It should have been painfully obvious to the students that the coin tosses were random. The outcomes couldn’t be altered by distraction or warm-up flips.
- Human beings worldwide exhibit all sorts of similar cognitive errors every minute of every day like those made by the students.
- We have little conscious control over them or awareness of them.
- The students experienced what the researchers called an "illusion of control."
Physicist Mlodinow is perhaps best known for writing two books with the late celebrity genius Stephen Hawking. But Mlodinow has also written extensively about randomness and the intuitive, unconscious mind.
In addition to illusions, our minds see patterns, too, he says:
>> "Random patterns can be interpreted as compelling evidence. … When a teacher initially believes that one student is smarter than another, he selectively focuses on evidence that tends to confirm the hypothesis. … We are focused on finding and confirming patterns rather than minimizing our false conclusions."
- next time "What we see is what we believe is reality."
- listening Graveyard "Hisingen Blues"
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