I sometimes have in my thoughts an image of myself at 17. My therapist, in an attempt to falsify a hunch, is administering me an IQ test.
In front of me are 20 or so six-sided cubes, each surface of each cube holding a different pattern.
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Using the cube, I'm supposed to replicate some patterns my therapist is showing me out of pages from his testing brochure.
I like pattern-matching, so the task is fun and passes in a breeze, until the final pattern...
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The pattern is all wrong. It looks like someone has made an intentional distortion, a parody of the task.
Then something clicks. The previous patterns were all neat squares, but this one is a diamond. I turn all the cubes 45 degrees and start building.
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To this day, the jolt I got when that pattern clicked is how I always feel when I learn something that changes my perspective.
If everything looks wrong, try cocking your head.