MY BREAKFAST AT LINKEDIN IS A GIFT

To observe humankind is a gift I only recently regained. Thanks to a stool, a counter, and a window on the 3rd floor of a 26-story building.

This is how my mornings start at LinkedIn.

I grab a bowl of oatmeal, sit at the counter facing the window overlooking 2nd Street, put down my phone and watch people while scooping chunks of oats.

I began rediscovering human patterns. Hundreds of them are diligently sewn by our existences that tend to intersect according to a hidden plan. To most of us, a point of intersection between two patterns seems to occur randomly, but in reality it is because of certain human behaviors that take place regularly over time.

For instance, the other day I saw two people bump into each other. Or at least, I felt like their meeting was unplanned by looking at the way they hugged. One of them regularly gets off the bus at Howard and 2nd between 8:15 and 8:30am. The other guy is someone I’ve noticed before because he carries a long red skateboard and stops by the café on 2nd Street, usually before 8:30.

So last Thursday their lives finally collided. And if you think about it, it was just a matter of time. Their human patterns adjusted and calibrated over time, until they found that point of intersection. I believe encounters don’t happen by chance. They are written everywhere. Follow the patterns and you’ll crack the code, eventually.

Patterns dominate our creativity too. Every process of creation – even the most chaotic – is built upon patterns that lead to a single moment of discovery. So it’s never random when you have an idea. In other words, ideas don’t come from nowhere. They start traveling to you long before you recognize them, but they only become visible when you pay attention to them. What we call “inspiration” or what the dictionary defines as the process of being mentally stimulated is actually the ability to recognize and leverage patterns that lead to an idea. But don’t sweat over this, the patterns tirelessly work for you without you having to work for them. If you want to see them in action, put down your phone and start observing the world again.