What is a pattern, and how do we know what comes next?
Pattern Detective
What is a pattern, and how do we know what comes next?
Look around for one minute and you'll catch them: stripes on a zebra, the days of the week, the beat of a song you can't stop tapping. These are patterns. A pattern is simply a thing that repeats in a way you can predict — and the moment you spot the "rule," you suddenly know what's coming. Let's go hunting for that feeling.
Here's the heart of it. A pattern is a repeating rule. Not just stuff that looks similar — stuff that follows an instruction over and over. "Red, blue, red, blue" isn't random; it's obeying a tiny law: switch colors each time. Find the law, and the future stops being a mystery.
