Life patterns

In software we have what we call design patterns. They are what other industries call best practices and what in real life we call experience. Design patterns are templates. When we see a problem, we try to find a design pattern that fits. If it does, the implementation is simple because it has been done before and well-described and understood.

Reminded me that's what we do as humans although usually implicitly. We have design patterns for cooking, for breakfast, for solving conflicts. Usually the patterns evolve from experience, having faced the same situation more than once and having solved it in more than one way.

That's really what makes the difference between an expert and novice. It is usually the difference between a adult and a child. It is implicit competence. I'm not really smarter than my children, it's just that I have more life patterns that make me look smarter.

Unfortunately, the design patterns that we develop are not always go ones. We call them bad habits. It's us doing the same thing over and over again even when it is wrong. And sometimes we know it is wrong but we continue because it is convenient and there is a pattern that we follow easily.

So often we forget to ask ourselves, not what we should start doing but we should stop doing.