What patterns do you see?

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I notice patterns in numbers quite a bit, besides that fact that I'm counting things constantly. But I notice phone numbers -- it seems like every phone number in our small town ends in 1. When I was working in a convenience store and selling Lotto tickets, I would notice whether the numbers chosen were in a pattern -- all evens, or multiples of 3 or whatever. All this came in really handy when I had jobs where I had to remember lots of numbers -- ZIP codes in a mail room or license plates in a gas station.

I notice color patterns too -- like if there are several more red cars in a parking lot than there should be for a random sample. Or if a group of people traveling together are all wearing the same color, but not in a conventional way like they are part of a organization or team in uniform.

And of course I notice the classic Aspie patterns -- license plates. I notice when regular plates -- meaning non-vanity -- can be read as a word. My plates used to be N04 MTV, which I read as No For MTV. I also notice out-of-state plates. I see at least one every time I go out. I now notice them often enough, that I can many times identify the plate by the pattern without being close enough to read it.

I'm actually not as good at seeing shape patterns, although I'm aware of shapes because I trace them with my eyes all the time. I don't easily pick out shapes in wood grain or cloud formations although I'm probably as good at it as most NTs are.

I notice a lot of consistencies and inconsistencies in patterns over time, like people doing things differently than usual, or this person saying something like that one would, or things not being like they usually are. When social patterns are consistent I am content. And when they are not consistent sometimes I react oddly.
I also notice patterns in things, as others mention, like tiles in the floor or where there is a grid pattern.
I systemize data using patterning sometimes. That came to a new level this year when I was going through a stressful time and started visualizing complex patterns (and their flaws) more intensely than I used to, and when the stress resolved I kept using patterns the same way because it seems somehow more effective on some level. So my perspective on them changed forever.

I have been looking for a word and maybe this is the appropriate place to ask? It is the name for a river system from it's source to where it becomes a river, then it's tributaries, and eventually out to the ocean. You can see these from satellite photos sometimes, and near shorelines they sometimes resemble a fan. I've been trying to find the word to explain something about my patterns to my psychiatrist, but it's hard to look things up in the dictionary in reverse. There are some wordy people around who may know it?

Can you explain that further? I'm confused because if you're visualising patterns (and flaws), doesn't that make you even more stressful to see flaws in patterns?



Watershed?
(click word to link)

I googled it, lol.

Edit: Link wasn't obvious so I bolded the word and added an instruction.

Last edited by OCD_Angel on 13 Sep 2012, 12:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I see patterns in wallpaper, ceilings, flooring, carpets, curtains, and other things like that.

I've seen NTs spot small patterns in things like tiles, even what I haven't noticed.

Thats why aspies excel at science, subtle patterns exist in many areas, and a seer or sage is able to see them when others can not

I see patterns in people's behavior all the time. I think it's an ability I developed to try to predict social behavior and figure out how to respond because I'm terrible at reading nonverbal communication like body language and expressions. I also seem to be good at picking patterns in data that most people don't see--like trends over time or linkages between different parts of a data set.

It's interesting to see that others see physical patterns in things like tile because I don't think I notice that as much. I'm going to start paying more attention and see if that's true!

Might it be Estuary?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary

Or maybe watershed?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watershed

I was just at dinner at a restaurant with my boyfriend and his family (10 people total). At one point, the waitress brought out dessert spoons and put one in front of each other.

I looked at the spoons and noticed right away that my boyfriend had a soup spoon whereas the rest of us all had proper dessert spoons. It was a congruity that jumped out at me and entertained me for minutes while i contemplated it.

I don't think anyone else noticed as they were all busy chatting away. Is that a kind of pattern seeing, or is that just being obsessed with details?

Tiles on the floor, and what kind of numbers you can get from them. Rules of squaring, when you extend them (a^2+2ab+b^2). Before I had those at mathematics at school ...

That was the most obvious one

Give me a planisphere and I can find every constellation above the horizon on any given night, but I already have the vast majority of constellations committed to memory anyway. I can also tell which planets are visible because they bright (no kidding right) but also because they are not part of the zodiacal constellation they happen to be in, I can tell you which planet it is by its color and brightness, this is all so easy for me I frequently forget that most people never even bother to look up much less bother with learning the night sky, kind of sad really.

I suppose I would want to have you there if I were lost in a desert.

Biggest amusement I got from floor tiles was from noticing swastikas in certain hallways in the US Capitol Building. lol

Love playing the "make words out of license plates" game and staring at the clothes that go round and round inside large, front-loading commercial dryers.

Love looking at photographers' work that show imagination in capturing patterns among ordinary, everyday things.

Well its good to know that I'm useful for something.

I don't think that's only related to patterns, it's related to having a good memory. I am very good at noticing patterns but terrible at remembering them. My memory is very bad indeed. You are apparently blessed with the ability to notice patterns and memorise them, too - or perhaps you aren't.

Are these constellations you are memorising patterns that have been noticed by you, or patterns that have been noticed by somebody else, and that you are just copying and committing to memory? Did you notice them yourself of your own accord up in the night sky, or did you memorise a diagram you saw in a book or on the Internet, and then go and look up and realise it was all true, and those patterns were all up in the sky just like the book said? I ask because I have a theory that the better your memory is, the worse you are at spotting patterns, and vice versa - but it's just a private theory of my own, nothing that's been scientifically proven. I can spot all sorts of brilliant patterns, but my memory is like a sieve so it's useless having this pattern-spotting ability unless I quickly go and write the patterns down. It's like I have amnesia or something. LOL