[S]uitably complicated recursive systems might be strong enough to break out of any predetermined patterns. And isn't this one of the defining proper… - Douglas Hofstadter

Where there's a pattern, there's a reason.

Consistent or inconsistent, no one is exempt from the mystery of the self. Probably we are all inconsistent. The world is just too complicated for a person to be able to afford the luxury of reconciling all of his beliefs with each other. Tension and confusion are important in a world where many decisions must be made quickly. Miguel de Unamuno once said, 'If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing.' I would say that we all are in the same boast as the Zen master who, after contradicting himself several times in a row, said to the confused Doko, 'I cannot understand myself.'.

We don't want to focus on the trees (or their leaves) at the expense of the forest.