Patterns You See, Are They Real?
You can find patterns every where you see, normally, in clouds.
You start to get more interested in patterns when something is random. You are guessing what it is. Sometimes, you find the sketch of a particular picture.
This is what is called clustering illusion.
Rolf Dobelli’s The Art of Thinking Clearly explains about this bias that happen often.
Our mind tends to identify everything you see. It will form a particular form whenever it finds unfamiliar pattern.
This particular one depends on who see it. If one gets used to animal, so he will see a cow, sheep, etc. Even, this pattern also can be drawn from in the sea of data. Those who work in global market could make their own patterns when doing foreign exchange transaction by creating their own formula to link various variables. Unfortunately, all those patterns do not exist.
Be skeptical whenever you encounter this condition, or when you meet someone trying to manipulate others by using this pseudo-truth to just take advantage of others. Ask the experts if you think something is too good to be true.
So, clustering illusion is everywhere, and you should be able to identify it.
Don’t get me wrong, the pattern that explain how something works is different from clustering illusion.
It’s called mental model. We use it to understand what’s going on around us. It makes our life much easier.
Don’t confuse clustering illusion with mental model.
