pattern recognition
So I’m making my way through The Black Swan; highly recommended. IAONAN (I Am Obviously Not A Neuroscientist), but Taleb’s argument that our brains just aren’t wired for outliers seems to be the flip side (in a good way) of Jeff Hawkins’ descriptions of conscious thought in On Intelligence. Our brains are constantly doing pattern recognition, looking for how things fit…and being (quite literally) surprised when they don’t. (And “click” went my brain.) Plus, I haven’t come across more descriptive terms than “mediocristan” and “extremistan.” Perfect.