This is a video of a slime mold finding food: https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo It seems to be operating in something like 2 main phase

This is a video of a slime mold finding food: https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo It seems to be operating in something like 2 main phases: an initial exploratory phase in which it expands almost in every direction and then a second "optimization" (simplification) phase in which it just keeps the links between the food sources. I think we operate in a similar way. We learn by exploring and then we optimize when "exploiting". Everyone is different though, some like exploring more, others like optimizing more, and there's a big range in between. It also depends on the subject or activity. I personally almost exclusively enjoy the exploration part (learning about things), and don't have much interest in the optimization part (executing repetitively the same thing for gain).