Bobby McFerrin, the extremely optimistic, good old, one hit wonder. I know, I know, all you younger generations out there may be asking yourself, “Bobby who?” He may only be remembered by his ‘80s mega hit song, “Don’t worry be happy,” which is sad because the man is brilliant and understands the human mind very well. However, even if he is only remembered for that one song, that’s still a lot better than what the majority of the rest of the world will be remembered by.
In the video, “Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music”, posted on TED.com, Bobby grabs the attention of the audience and shares information through a demonstration of the ability of the human mind to recognize and predict patterns. Bobby begins by jumping in the air and singing a single note, and as he lands, he signals the audience members to follow along and sing the note as he continues to jump. By the second jump, the audience began to recognize the simple pattern and started singing along with Bobby. As Bobby proceeds to jump on stage, he jumps towards the audience’s right and introduces a new higher note to the audience, and the audience picks up on this instantly. Shortly after the audience learns the new note, he proceeds to jump back and forth between the two spots, and the crowd immediately catches on to the notes and sings along with his actions depending on which spot he lands on. This is pattern recognition by the human mind. As Bobby jumps again over towards the crowds right (the higher note), he suddenly switches it up on the crowd and jumps beyond the high note even further towards their right, and without him even singing the note the audience instantly knew which note to hit! A step up from the previous high note! This is pattern prediction, which the human mind is completely capable of and hard-wired to do. He continuously adds new notes even without singing them to the crowd, and everyone in the audience sings in sync with his actions. Incredible.
What does this mean to me? Well, it means quite a few things. Of course it means we are naturally able to recognize and predict patterns, but not just of musical nature. Human beings can use the brains natural ability to recognize patterns in consumer trends, marketing trends, and business trends. If we really put our brains to work, we can even predict patterns in each of these trends. Being able to recognize and predict patterns in consumer behavior can be a remarkable help to your business. If you can recognize a pattern of trends that your target market is following, and then predict what the next trend will be, well my friend, you are ahead of your game and strapped for success. Unless of course your brain is malfunctioning or you make the wrong prediction. But as the saying goes, no risk – no gain. This is Cliff Anderson, signing out. Stay classy my friends.
P.S. Here is the link to the TED speaker :)
P.S. Here is the link to the TED speaker :)
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