mazeways

you work in healthcare. you fulfill the role you play. that's not the important thing.

you work in a dense, interconnected network of buildings belonging to many different institutions. there are several floors, sprawling labyrinthine basements, and a network of tunnels rumored to connect to every building in the area. it's said that one can traverse the entirety of Boston by subterranean tunnels alone.

Boston is unlike the great grid cities of the west, like Los Angeles or Seattle or even Detroit. the roads here meander freely and wildly. there is an important cognitive bias that shows itself when you draw a maze.

imagine a maze with pathways of uneven widths. most paths are one unit across, a few are two units across, and a couple are three or more. they are broad and sweeping, cutting large swaths through fields of grain or rough-hewn walls of stone.

the brain assumes that these wide paths are integral to the completion of the maze and is wired to expect that you must traverse these wider paths at some point between start and finish. you are inclined to believe that they are necessary. if you complete one such maze and you never encounter the wide paths, it's surprising. you may laugh or feel deceived or feel inclined to share it with somebody else.

eat lunch

{ quit mazeway }