The more I observe things in life, the more I am convinced that a lot of stuff happening around us follows a certain pattern. There are certain patterns that govern the functionality of things. These patterns follow a logical sequence, and there is nothing left to chance.

If you are trying to model an entity, then the best thing is to identify the set of patterns that encompass its general behaviour. Whenever you are trying to develop a system that reflects a specific set of activities in real life, then the best thing is to identify those patterns that your system should satisfy.

Understanding patterns gives us a lot of insight into how a thing works. More than that it gives us the ability to design similar kinds of systems. You gain tremendous amount of process design maturity.

The idea of identifying the patterns during process designing and system simulation can be extended to real life scenarios. Every day we come across several situations when we aren’t quite able to judge what is the best course of action. The key thing is to identify what kind of scenarios you would want to deal with, and then develop a response pattern that totally does the job. Mind you, it won’t be easy – you may have to spend a lot of time iterating and changing or tweaking the responses that form a part of your pattern. But gradually you will find that such a pattern, when used a few times, will be capable of saving you quite a few times! Be it an explosive situation in college or office, or a tiff with a colleague or friend, or something totally unexpected that blows in your face, if you are able to identify what kind of response pattern you ought to use for that occasion, then you will at least have some idea of how to get started. To add to this, having worked on such a response pattern will also make you aware of what next might be happening, thereby leaving you better prepared to handle it. More than being better prepared to handle anything, a process pattern will help you understand what all activities you must do to get started on a positive kneel.

I’m sure what I have just mentioned above may not make much sense to you when you read it first. Let me take up a few examples. Lets say there are a lot of times when you have to go to office very early morning because of some meetings. Rather that brood over it, you may have a ready pattern ready that will help you get you get started, for example what all activities to complete during that day since you are beginning early, plus how to reach office early, having a travel plan ready, and so on. Or lets say you are going to a new city to work for a few months. You have a design pattern for new places using which you can plan how to get started in the new city, when to buy things for your living and when, and so on. Or lets say you are a frequent traveller. You can plan a pattern for yourself in which you can plan what kind of luggage you are going to carry, what stuff you will actually need, and in what quantity. This way you will be ready for any travel plan that jumps on you out of nowhere, and you will avoid packing that old jeans you always carried with you, when you think you will wear it in this trip, but never actually do!

In the same way I can think of several ways in which you can try and develop response patterns for a lot of things in life. The key is not to be tied with your patterns so much that you forget the meaning or importance of being spontaneous. Remember – these patterns are only to get you started, and alleviate the pain of being unprepared, or being taken by surprise! Beyond that, they are not to be used as an emotional tool!

To understand is to perceive patterns. However, creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.

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