Why write about a pattern without actionable followup?

[sparr]

A recurring topic in my writing is of the form "I have noticed a pattern connecting these seemingly disconnected things", e.g. "X Y Z things are similar in A B C ways". That's the whole premise, just identifying and describing the pattern, without explicitly proceeding toward any specific conclusion or actionable insight. Sometimes just that step will take hundreds to thousands of words, so I will stop even if I do already have those other steps in mind. Two of the items on my potential writing challenge topic lists have this same general shape. A friend saw that and seemed confused at the point of such a thing, hence this writing.

I have a few different goals when I write about a pattern. There are a few different implicit questions and goals and imperatives silently tacked onto the end of every such writing. When I read this sort of thing, I see these implications automatically, but apparently not everyone does. When I describe a pattern...

I am looking for agreement like "Yes, I see that pattern too" from people who have already noticed the thing. I seek confirmation that the pattern exists, and of my pattern-finding abilities. I am looking to add confidence to any of the actionable steps that might come next. I am trying to build rapport with you, my fellow pattern-noticer. I am demonstrating my competence on this front.

I am looking for disagreement like "No, you've misunderstood Y+C, it doesn't actually fit the described pattern". My intention here is to correct my own misconceptions and mistakes (or, perhaps, yours). There is value in improving my pattern-finding abilities. I want to highlight that Y and/or C are some combination of the factors you're most aware of and the factors you care the most about, or the factors I'm least aware of, to inform our further conversation. I want to avoid making decisions about X+C based on my already knowing how to handle Y+C (or vice versa) if it turns out they aren't connected in the way I thought.

I am looking to educate, which might sound like "I didn't see that pattern before, but now I do". I want for everyone else all of the benefits described in the previous two paragraphs. I want everyone to have a better understanding of the world, and to be better at evaluating it. I hope that this allows us or you to better collaborate, in general and especially on this specific pattern.

I am suggesting that insights and experience on one of the things might be relevant to the others, due to the pattern. "If you know know the failure modes of X, you might know some of the failure modes of Z, even if you've never tried Z". I want feedback on that relationship, so that I and others can better apply our knowledge about Z to X and Y.

I am looking for insight into which aspects of the pattern are most important, in general and to the people around me. If 90% of the conversation is about specifically X+A vs Z+A, then I'm probably going to focus less on Y, B, and C in whatever I write or say or do next, or if I do focus on those things then it will be specifically.

I am telling you that, all else being equal, if you're approaching one of the things for the first time, that you should apply your knowledge of the other thing to that experience. "If you know that D is dangerous to X and Y, you shouldn't do D to Z until you've confirmed it breaks the pattern". "You should assume the first step of building a Y is the same as the first step of building an X until you know otherwise", "The biggest factor in the cost of an X is B, so you should consider B when valuing a Y", etc. This "should" is stronger than the "suggest" in the previous paragraph; once I have pointed such a pattern out to you, you bear increased responsibility if you ignore that pattern in your decision making.

I'm sure that I have missed a few things on this list. It's hard to exhaustively enumerate my motivations for doing something that I do regularly. But that doesn't mean it's not worth trying! You can look forward to future posts in this month's writing challenge with working titles of "Why do I keep trying to make big intentional community projects happen?" and "Why do I keep writing about consent? (Rewrite)".

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>A recurring topic in my writing is of the form "I have noticed a pattern connecting these seemingly disconnected things", e.g. "X Y Z things are similar in A B C ways". That's the whole premise, just identifying and describing the pattern, without explicitly proceeding toward any specific conclusion or actionable insight. <<

That's useful.

>>I am looking for agreement like "Yes, I see that pattern too" from people who have already noticed the thing. <<

Sensible.

>>I am looking for disagreement like "No, you've misunderstood Y+C, it doesn't actually fit the described pattern". My intention here is to correct my own misconceptions and mistakes (or, perhaps, yours).<<

One thing I have noticed is that people often conflate things which are actually different but appear similar and take work or closer observation to separate. That separation often comes from arguing over how a pattern works and what does or doesn't fit it. Watch for data clusters. If you see one cluster here and another over there, you are probably looking at two different things which seem similar but are not the same. Then you have to hunt for diagnostics to distinguish the separate things, and figure out what their different parameters are. It's a very useful bit of troubleshooting in pattern recognition. It pops up in biology because some species are similar enough to be mistaken for one species, until someone realizes that their mating dances are different or two nearby populations don't actually mix.

>>I am suggesting that insights and experience on one of the things might be relevant to the others, due to the pattern. "If you know know the failure modes of X, you might know some of the failure modes of Z, even if you've never tried Z". <<

Also very useful. It always surprises me how few people actually do failure analysis.

>>"Why do I keep trying to make big intentional community projects happen?" <<

That's a cool topic. Given the fragmentation of society and family life nowadays, community is important.