I Have A Tendency To Find Patterns In Two Steps. This Is Both A Good Thing And A Bad Thing; It Means

I have a tendency to find patterns in two steps. This is both a good thing and a bad thing; it means I'm generally quicker to catch on to things than most people, but it also means that I often find patterns where they don't exist.

Let's use a mathematical example, shall we? I love math! Say I'm given two numbers:

1, 8

Here's the order in which I think of what patterns this might fit in:

Sequential cubes - 1³, 2³ (3³, 4³, n³) Add seven to previous number - 1, 1+7 (8+7, 15+7, 1+7n) Multiples of eight - 8⁰, 8¹ (8², 8³, 8ⁿ)

What tends to happen when I point out the first pattern that comes to mind is that I'm often wrong. Even if I go through all the patterns that come to mind, it could still be a different pattern, or it could just not be a pattern at all!

So what I've trained myself to do is wait for a third term to see if I have it right. I've been wrong on the third term before, but far less often. Most of the time my suspicion is correct at that point - except with things like human behavior, which I'm usually more careful about.

...no, I don't treat human behavior like numbers... I look for patterns in different ways...

I really don't know what to say about this other than listen to it right now.

To clear up some common misconceptions:

Weird is good. Strange is bad.

Smart is how much you know, intelligent is what you do with it.

Sympathy is having been there; empathy is feeling it without having been there; apathy is not feeling at all.

Bravery is choosing not to be afraid, courage is being afraid and doing it anyway.

This Monday is the upcoming Monday; next Monday is the one after that.

Hearing is sound passing into your ear. Listening is thinking about what the sound means.

Why do schools have uniforms?

Why are people expected to wear a suit when they go to a job interview?

Why do people always worry about how they look?

Why does our society insist on oversexualizing everything?

It's not like outer appearance changes the person on the inside.

My avatar is loading just fine, thank you

I'm actually not a big fan of April Fools' Day. It's like I'm on edge the entire day. Always watching for some crazy thing to hap-- WHERE DID THAT ANVIL COME FROM

Always watching. Good, I'm out of range in case he points that water hose at me. Always vigilant. Okay, Google's site preview shows the site is fine. Always two steps ahead. I saw that shadow from behind the door, you can come out now. 

In the end, however... always paranoid.

The best April Fools' Joke: Legitimately release something totally awesome at midnight. Watch as people squirm for 24 hours, possibly more. That just sounds amazing... and totally better than what I'm doing.

Why is it that negativity gets more attention than positivity?

Whenever someone says that they like something, most people just talk about it for a couple minutes (if that), brush it off, and move on to the next topic. But whenever someone says something wrong, everyone in the conversation has to tell that person that they're wrong, over and over again. I don't get it... heck, I'm kind of doing that right now, even! Shouldn't attention be directly proportional to positivity, not inversely? It just doesn't make sense to me. Then again, people would rather watch drama than peaceful times...

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's not "normal." Even though people do stuff wrong all the time, the expectation is that they will not, so it seems absurd when they don't, and it attracts attention. For some reason. I still don't get it.