Human Autocomplete

Humans do Google autocomplete for each other. Rather than understand what you want to say, people grasp whatever (they think) is likely to follow your train of thought.

This is a problem when communicating new ideas. Pre-existing concepts and associations guide thought in certain directions, similar to an ice skate slipping down a deep groove.

Robin Williams illustrates this during a bit where he pretends to invent golf:

Inventor Scotsman: Here's my idea for a sport. I knock a ball into a gopher hole.

Listener Scotsman: Oh, you mean like pool!

Inventor Scotsman: No, forget pool. Not with a straight stick — a little broken stick. I whack a ball into a gopher hole.

Listener Scotsman: Oh, you mean like croquet?

Inventor Scotsman: Ah, no, not croquet. I put the hole hundreds of yards away.

Listener Scotsman: Oh, kind of like a bowling alley.

Inventor Scotsman: Oh no way! I put stuff in the way like trees and bushes.