So, I only recently joined Substack and found your page. I know I am late to the party here. This post intrigues me though. And hopefully, I don't accidentally veer too hard from your original idea.
So, the first thing I thought as I was reading your post was, "What would younger me say about this?" Because back then, I could have been more hopeful in the world around me, or I could have been more cynical. So, my answers would have been heavily influenced by those circumstances. Or maybe, my attitude would have been the deciding factor.
Which led to my second thought.
I found myself thinking, "Are we products of our environments? Or are our environments the product of us and our decisions?" Because there was a certain point in my life, one of the lowest, that it was kind of both. I entered a situation, completely underestimating it, only to get absolutely demolished. That being said, if it was a healthy environment, I think I might have had a chance to rebound. However, that wasn't the case.
So, this became a chicken and the egg issue.
Which leads to my final thought.
Does every advancement in history enable human progression, or is it regression in disguise?
What stayed with me most wasn’t the question you started with, it was the realization that the environment became the story. Your fish analogy made that shift click for me. As someone who spends my career looking for visual patterns, I found myself thinking about how often the deeper pattern matters more than the surface subject. Thank you for creating something that invites observation instead of demanding agreement. That’s a conversation worth having.💙
Thank you! I didn't want this project to just be about handing people conclusions. More so giving them something, as you said it, "to chew on" for a bit.
Excellent piece. For me? It shows that an animal cannot be separated from its ecology. Humans and the world are one feedback loop. World changes humans adapt.
This is what I enjoy most about your Pattern Project. Instead of asking whether AI is good or bad, you’re asking what kinds of humans our systems are quietly training us to become. That’s a much deeper question, because today’s habits become tomorrow’s culture. The technology will change, but the patterns we reinforce may last much longer. Great case study.
I appreciate that! Ai just happens to be one of many environments applying pressure at the moment. The interesting part to me is that if you swap AI for social media, schools, workplaces, politics, or the economy, people describe the same underlying process.
Exactly. AI just makes the pressure easier to see, but the deeper pattern is how every system quietly shapes our behaviour. That broader lens is what makes your project so compelling.
Thought provoking article. Timothy Leary wrote about this in Exo Psychology, how little we ask the question "where are we going?" Even 50+ years ago, his thought was that we have already splintered off into untold numbers of evolutionary branches of humans and that we are no longer simply homo sapien sapiens. Most likely due to genes passing off the hard work of mutation and adaptation from hard physical survival to society and culture, which elicit much quicker changes. Pretty wild. He also suggested that SMI^2LE was the way forward for the best of humanity (Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, Longevity Extension).
Interesting!! I have not read Exo Psychology, so I appreciate the rec. I'll for sure check it out. I have learned through this project is to separate recurring observations from explanations. I can observe that people repeatedly describe humans as adapting to changing environments. Why that's happening is where so many of competing theories come up. I'll dig into him before our podcast!!
Oh! I love the observation and the counterexample. It's totally possible that the word I used “becoming” implies movement from one condition to another, therefore smuggling the environment into the question. And in that case, the comments may not have independently discovered the water. The word could have pointed everyone toward it instead. Your point gives me something new to test: whether the pattern survives when the questions remove adaptation, change, challenge, and environment from the framing entirely. Ill do this for the next round. So we can investigate!
This is the kind of investigation that matters. Not asking what people think, but watching what patterns emerge when the question changes and the topic shifts. The fact that the underlying observations remained consistent across different questions is the signal. The topic almost never matters. The water matters.
The distinction between what society rewards and what humans need is the fracture. Performance, visibility, self-promotion on one side. Judgment, connection, regulation on the other. The same people living in both, trying to reconcile what they're told to be with what they actually need.
The unexpected pattern is the one that stays with me. Participants kept explaining behavior through environmental pressure even when the question didn't ask for it. They described the water, not the fish. That's the recognition that most people never reach.
Thank you so much! Surprised that completely different conversations kept resting on the same underlying structure. this is why I keep saying the topic almost never matters. If the pattern survives after the topic changes, then I stop paying attention to the topic and I begin to investigate the pattern.
Yes. That is the discernment that changes everything. The topic is the surface. The pattern is the structure. When the same conversation keeps appearing in different forms, the topic is not the point. The pattern is. The investigation is not about what is being said. It is about what keeps saying itself.
The topic almost never matters. The pattern always does.
So, I only recently joined Substack and found your page. I know I am late to the party here. This post intrigues me though. And hopefully, I don't accidentally veer too hard from your original idea.
So, the first thing I thought as I was reading your post was, "What would younger me say about this?" Because back then, I could have been more hopeful in the world around me, or I could have been more cynical. So, my answers would have been heavily influenced by those circumstances. Or maybe, my attitude would have been the deciding factor.
Which led to my second thought.
I found myself thinking, "Are we products of our environments? Or are our environments the product of us and our decisions?" Because there was a certain point in my life, one of the lowest, that it was kind of both. I entered a situation, completely underestimating it, only to get absolutely demolished. That being said, if it was a healthy environment, I think I might have had a chance to rebound. However, that wasn't the case.
So, this became a chicken and the egg issue.
Which leads to my final thought.
Does every advancement in history enable human progression, or is it regression in disguise?
Curious to know your thoughts on this.
Great post!
What stayed with me most wasn’t the question you started with, it was the realization that the environment became the story. Your fish analogy made that shift click for me. As someone who spends my career looking for visual patterns, I found myself thinking about how often the deeper pattern matters more than the surface subject. Thank you for creating something that invites observation instead of demanding agreement. That’s a conversation worth having.💙
I liked this piece. Thought provoking. I'm going to chew on this a bit.
Thank you! I didn't want this project to just be about handing people conclusions. More so giving them something, as you said it, "to chew on" for a bit.
Gotta make us think.
Excellent piece. For me? It shows that an animal cannot be separated from its ecology. Humans and the world are one feedback loop. World changes humans adapt.
Thank you! I was trying to investigate the fish theory but the comments kept pointing back to water.
This is what I enjoy most about your Pattern Project. Instead of asking whether AI is good or bad, you’re asking what kinds of humans our systems are quietly training us to become. That’s a much deeper question, because today’s habits become tomorrow’s culture. The technology will change, but the patterns we reinforce may last much longer. Great case study.
I appreciate that! Ai just happens to be one of many environments applying pressure at the moment. The interesting part to me is that if you swap AI for social media, schools, workplaces, politics, or the economy, people describe the same underlying process.
Exactly. AI just makes the pressure easier to see, but the deeper pattern is how every system quietly shapes our behaviour. That broader lens is what makes your project so compelling.
Thought provoking article. Timothy Leary wrote about this in Exo Psychology, how little we ask the question "where are we going?" Even 50+ years ago, his thought was that we have already splintered off into untold numbers of evolutionary branches of humans and that we are no longer simply homo sapien sapiens. Most likely due to genes passing off the hard work of mutation and adaptation from hard physical survival to society and culture, which elicit much quicker changes. Pretty wild. He also suggested that SMI^2LE was the way forward for the best of humanity (Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, Longevity Extension).
Interesting!! I have not read Exo Psychology, so I appreciate the rec. I'll for sure check it out. I have learned through this project is to separate recurring observations from explanations. I can observe that people repeatedly describe humans as adapting to changing environments. Why that's happening is where so many of competing theories come up. I'll dig into him before our podcast!!
I am glad a certain comment stood out for you.
On the environment point, I wonder if it was an unstated implication of the becoming topic?
To answer becoming, we must first assess where we are and what the challenges are. Becoming then becomes what is left after the challenge.
The challenge environment is implied, with capability as being the surviving element of who we are.
This is not a criticism. I think the method and approach is very helpful. Think more observation (which might be in itself in error).
Oh! I love the observation and the counterexample. It's totally possible that the word I used “becoming” implies movement from one condition to another, therefore smuggling the environment into the question. And in that case, the comments may not have independently discovered the water. The word could have pointed everyone toward it instead. Your point gives me something new to test: whether the pattern survives when the questions remove adaptation, change, challenge, and environment from the framing entirely. Ill do this for the next round. So we can investigate!
I look forward to the next one.
This is the kind of investigation that matters. Not asking what people think, but watching what patterns emerge when the question changes and the topic shifts. The fact that the underlying observations remained consistent across different questions is the signal. The topic almost never matters. The water matters.
The distinction between what society rewards and what humans need is the fracture. Performance, visibility, self-promotion on one side. Judgment, connection, regulation on the other. The same people living in both, trying to reconcile what they're told to be with what they actually need.
The unexpected pattern is the one that stays with me. Participants kept explaining behavior through environmental pressure even when the question didn't ask for it. They described the water, not the fish. That's the recognition that most people never reach.
Thank you so much! Surprised that completely different conversations kept resting on the same underlying structure. this is why I keep saying the topic almost never matters. If the pattern survives after the topic changes, then I stop paying attention to the topic and I begin to investigate the pattern.
Yes. That is the discernment that changes everything. The topic is the surface. The pattern is the structure. When the same conversation keeps appearing in different forms, the topic is not the point. The pattern is. The investigation is not about what is being said. It is about what keeps saying itself.
The topic almost never matters. The pattern always does.