# People tend to pattern match against the most salient patterns You can’t really copy people or activities you don’t know about. As a result, we tend to subconsciously emulate the loudest people and the most salient activities that they (and others) do. This is particularly insidious in the age of the internet because it’s harder to inadvertently see quiet people and processes. On the internet, you see loud people and loud processes — publicity, self-promotion, publishing, public-intellectualing, fundraising, grand, flashy moves in romance and other human endeavors. Generalizations. Software. Things that are less internet-transmissible fade from view: the quiet, consistent things that go into building and maintaining relationships, norms, craft. This natural filtering that’s amplified by the internet creates an insidious interaction with a more general principle of which [[You are the average of the five people you spend the most time around]] is a specific case. The way we think and behave is subconsciously influenced by how the people around us think and behave. So if all you see is naturally salient activities, you can’t help but overweighting their value. ### Related * [[People tend to talk about successes more than failures]] [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/People+tend+to+pattern+match+against+the+most+salient+patterns) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/People+tend+to+pattern+match+against+the+most+salient+patterns)