I learnt a new word recently:

Apophenia.

It’s the human tendency to see patterns where none exist.

Apophenia is one of the many reasons why people are addicted to gambling. They begin to see patterns that are not there and believe they can predict future winnings based on the non-existent patterns.

This search for patterns is not just random. It’s self-preservation.

Our brains love order, patterns and systems. Once your brain recognises something familiar, it can work on autopilot and reduce the amount of energy needed to analyze a new situation.

Unfortunately, the natural way of life is chaos.

Everything tends to disintegrate.

Anyway, the concept of Apophenia reminds me of a quote by the great copywriter & author of Breakthrough Advertising, Eugene Schwartz.

He said:

“No formula works twice.

Each and every formula is simply the written solution to a particular problem that occurred in the past.

Change even one part of that problem, and you need an entirely different formula.”

i.e. You can’t exactly form a “pattern”.

You can’t copy something that has worked in the past and repeat it.

This is why “funnel hacking” and swiping are foolish at best and destructive at worst. Just because a piece of marketing worked for someone in the past doesn’t mean it’ll work for you now, even if you are selling the same product/service.

The overall quest for templates, patterns, and formulas in the marketing world is not only lazy, but also anti-conversions in my humble (but accurate) opinion.

But of course, I can’t control what you choose to do.

Every man for himself. The result will tell.

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Fola