Explore vs. Exploit: The Pattern-Novelty Balance

There's a real cool concept that I always come back around to, which is the oscillation between "explore" and "exploit."

Best simple example is trying new restaurants—that might be bad or great—is explore. And going back to your favorites is exploit.

The key point is that if you do too much of either, it reduces the amount of enjoyment you can get from life.

There's another way that this is taught, in a frame I came up with a long time ago, which is pattern versus novelty.

My go-to example here is having a chorus melody, or a hook in a song, which the song keeps coming back to. That's the pattern. And then there's unique things in the song, perhaps in a solo or something.

So once again, it's the oscillation between the two that's necessary.

People love familiar patterns. But if you do too much of it, it becomes boring.

And people love novelty. Unique sounds and ideas and tastes. But even within novelty, if there is too much of it, or for too long, they eventually search for a pattern so that it feels familiar.

Too much novelty and you want patterns.

Too much pattern and you want novely.

Too much exploit (going to your favorites) and you seek to explore. Too much explore (collecting favorites) and you want to just go enjoy some of them.

This is a really powerful concept for thinking about how to get the most out of life.