There is a person at every workplace whose day is a loop you have memorised without trying. The arrival at the same minute. The same remark about the traffic or the weather. The same anecdote, delivered with the same pauses, as if for the first time. The same opinion on the same topic, triggered by the same cue. You could write their next sentence before they say it, and you would be right.

This is not stupidity, and it is not a character flaw. It is what a life runs like when none of it is examined. Routines harden into scripts. Scripts run themselves. The person inside is not absent — they are just no longer at the controls. The behaviour has been automated, and automation does not need a driver.

The Codex calls these patterns NPC behaviour, and the point is not to look down on the coworker. The point is the mirror. You also have loops. The commute. The phrase you always use. The reaction you always have to a certain kind of message. The difference between a player and an NPC is not whether the loops exist — everyone has them. The difference is whether anyone is watching them run.

Start by finding one of your own. The first loop you notice is the first one you can change.