Humans are pattern seekers. We look for them, even if they aren’t clear, even if they aren’t there. Patterns enable us to explain why things happen. In The Believing Brain, Michael Shermer describes the term ‘patternicity’ as the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningful and meaningless data. These patterns become beliefs because of our propensity to infuse patterns with meaning, intention and agency, which he refers to as ‘agenticity’. Our brains seek out evidence to confirm and strengthen the beliefs we have formulated, ignoring contrary evidence.

When children first learn about patterns, they go through a stage of spotting them everywhere they look, seeking confirmation: ‘Is that a pattern, mum?’ I’m amazed at how patterned our world is and how little attention I pay to this. One day, my youngest child noted the pattern on a drawstring fabric bag: an unusual design of hexagons in different shades of green and pink with a mixture of block colour and decorated shapes. She wasn’t sure whether it was a pattern, but we looked more carefully and decided that it was. I explained that sometimes the pattern is more complicated and requires us to be further away in order to see it properly.
If you are too close, it is hard to detect. Those at the end of their lives will see patterns in the world that the young cannot yet discern. As my mum was fond of saying, ‘It will make sense in retrospect.’ All patterns require a certain perspective.