WEBVTT - Novelty Exploration vs. Pattern Exploitation 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.120 There's a really cool concept that I always come back 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.800 around to, which is the oscillation in life between explore 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:29.480 and exploit. A good example of this is trying new restaurants. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:31.680 When you try a new restaurant, you're taking a risk 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.200 that it could be bad for the potential reward of 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:38.000 it being better than anything you've ever had. Once you've 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.080 tried enough restaurants, you eventually have a list of them 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.000 that you know you'll like. So they're kind of known goods. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.280 And when you decide to use one of those known goods, 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.800 you're now in exploitation mode. So the key point here 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.320 is that if you do too much of either of these, 0:00:53.840 --> 0:01:00.080 exploring or exploiting it reduces your overall enjoyment. There's another 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:01.920 way I frame this a long time ago, which is 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.479 pattern versus novelty. And the example I use there is 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.480 for music. So my go to is like a melody 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.400 or a hook and a song, which the song keeps 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.320 coming back to. That's the pattern. And then there's the 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.800 unique things in the song as well, most importantly the 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.160 lyrics and maybe the tone or maybe the performance of 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.920 the artist. And those would be the novelty. But once again, 0:01:26.919 --> 0:01:30.400 it's the oscillation between the two that's necessary. People love 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.840 familiar patterns, but if you do too much of it, 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.840 it becomes boring. People also love novelty, unique sounds and 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.760 ideas and tastes and lyrics and voices or whatever. But 0:01:40.759 --> 0:01:43.109 within novelty, if there's too much of it, or if 0:01:43.110 --> 0:01:45.910 it goes for too long, they eventually search for a 0:01:45.910 --> 0:01:48.670 pattern so that it feels familiar. So they have something 0:01:48.710 --> 0:01:52.470 to anchor on. Too much novelty. And you want patterns. 0:01:52.830 --> 0:01:56.590 Too much pattern. And you want novelty, too much exploit 0:01:56.750 --> 0:01:59.910 going to your favorite restaurants. And you'll want to seek 0:01:59.910 --> 0:02:03.630 to explore, to try something new. Too much. Explore looking 0:02:03.630 --> 0:02:07.350 for new restaurants, but keep getting disappointed every once in 0:02:07.350 --> 0:02:10.230 a while or too often, and you just want to 0:02:10.230 --> 0:02:13.190 go to someplace that you know you will like. Here 0:02:13.190 --> 0:02:16.870 are some other examples in relationships. Taking your spouse to 0:02:16.870 --> 0:02:20.790 your favorite restaurant few times a year, but constantly surprising 0:02:20.790 --> 0:02:24.429 her with new restaurants as well. In content creation, it's 0:02:24.430 --> 0:02:27.110 great to have new content and ideas all the time 0:02:27.230 --> 0:02:30.510 coming from a creator, but we also love when our 0:02:30.510 --> 0:02:34.269 creator has like a catchphrase or a familiar sound associated 0:02:34.269 --> 0:02:37.429 with the videos or the podcast or whatever, or a 0:02:37.430 --> 0:02:41.750 logo present in the stuff. Romance. You have known goods, 0:02:41.750 --> 0:02:45.390 but you want excitement as well. Business customers know you're 0:02:45.389 --> 0:02:49.070 trustworthy and dependable if they see your logo, but they 0:02:49.070 --> 0:02:54.070 know you're also releasing new things as well. So yeah, 0:02:54.790 --> 0:02:57.269 I see this as a really powerful concept for thinking 0:02:57.269 --> 0:02:59.350 about how to get the most out of life, but 0:02:59.350 --> 0:03:02.790 also to provide the most value as well. And now 0:03:02.790 --> 0:03:05.230 that you've heard it, you're probably going to see it everywhere.