Have you ever fallen into a pattern of behaviour with a group of people? Maybe you are the one who tells funny stories all the time or you are the one who tells others about the latest gagdets. It may be because you like comedy or love tech and are happy to share your interests. But there is a chance that your behaviour is the result of postive reactions from the previous times you started to do that behviour. If you share an app that no one heard of and everyone starts to use it, maybe it made you feel good. So you tell them about another one and still, another positve result. This carries over to the next week where you let everyone know about this cool new site called Steemit, which leads them to high five you after they make there first dollar. What begins to happen is you start to pay more attention to the tech world. You might go out of your way to look for new things to tell people about. And soon you become an expert who can spot the next thing from a mile away.
There is this idea that we tend to like what we are good at. Our interests and hobbies are, in a way, molded by the postive feelings we get from them. And being good at something is quite a positve feeling. Think of the things you enjoy doing. If it is something you put any considerable time into, it was probably because you had a knack for it. It is more likely you will follow a career in a field if you are quick to understand that field and feel like you can excel in it. And a lot of the time, since we are social creatures, excel-at-it is a relative term where other people acknowledge that you are good at it. It can come in the form of applause, laughter, good grades or money, but the external stimulus that you are getting that shows you are good at the thing you are doing is giving by someone else. This is why we need to encourage people and not be discoruaged ourselves when we fail at something. Getting good at anything takes practice. And if you have people giving you positive and realisitic (don't lie to someone if they are really bad at something) support, you might be suprised how far you can impove in a field of your choice.
But we are not salvidating dogs. We are not animals. All the behaviour tests on animals in the world cannot fully help us to udnerstand huamns. People who like something will do it even if they suck at it and will do so with a smile on there face. And more power to them. Good for them rocking that shower ballad even when they are clearly tone deaf. People are more then how the outside world rewards them. And on top of that we are aware of why we likes things. Take this article for example, I can write about the idea of it because we can look outside of ourselves and see why we are doing what we do. Just something to think about the next time your eye wanders to that new tech article.
(pexels.com)