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1. contradictions emerge and then are resolved as more is learned
2. (seemingly) unrelated phenomena emerge and are easily ignored because no connecting threads are apparant. William James: "If the two universes were offered, he would always choose the skinny outline rather than the rich thicket of reality" -- yes!
3. there are many level of reality. one must use ones powers of abstraction -- for geometric shapes, colors, form, texture -- to understand what is micro and what is macro. these things are necessary to understand, at least to some degree, because they all act on the here and now. the old zen go-to: it is all one at the same time it's all myriad.
4. one must use ones powers of abstraction to understand: this is one reason why art is so important, and why art and science are intimately related, in a way that is unbelievably beautiful, in my opinion.
4. STATISTICS; LEARNING WHERE TO LOOK, and how they are related: look at the spot above a person's, any person's eyebrows, and behold the richness of their emotional and intellectual lives. it shocks me, and my first impulse is to deny it. where i am indeed on the the far end of the bell curve in some things, i might even be on the other end in other things -- emotions as a thicket rather than a skinny outline (the one i feel cramped and crushed in).