Quiet Leadership

THE BRAIN IS A CONNECTION MACHINE

Your brain craves patterns and searches for them endlessly.

THOMAS B. CZERNER (2001)

Scientists have discovered that our brain is a connection machine. Or to be more specific, the underlying functionality of our brain is one of finding associations, connections, and links between bits of information.¹ Our thoughts, memories, skills, and attributes are vast sets of connections or “maps”² joined together via complex chemical and physical pathways. I will call these connections maps from here on as it’s a short, memorable word; however you can replace this word with circuits, wiring, or neural pathway if you prefer.

To give you a sense of the complexity of these maps, imagine a topographic map of one square ...