Baselines & Anomalies

A baseline is what 'normal' looks like for a person or place. An anomaly is a deviation from it. You can't spot the anomaly until you've established the baseline.

Every environment has a baseline — the normal rhythm of behavior for that place at that time. A quiet library, a busy market, a calm waiting room: each has its own normal. Establishing the baseline is the observer's first job.

An anomaly is anything that rises above or falls below that baseline — someone too still in a lively room, or too agitated in a calm one. Anomalies aren't inherently threats; they're simply things that don't fit, and things that don't fit deserve attention.

The skill is sequential: read the baseline first, and the breaks from it stand out on their own. Without a baseline, everything looks either equally normal or equally suspicious.