A different class of power
In science, “high T” isn’t “aggression.”
It’s status reinforcement — your brain raises confidence and reduces fear when you win or when others treat you as high-status.
But pattern-breaking hits an entirely different system:
Dopamine + salience + prediction-error networks
When someone breaks a pattern — especially one everyone else is trapped inside — it changes the game.
Pattern-breakers don’t signal dominance like winning.
They signal originality, agency, and superior cognition.
That’s a different class of power.