March 15, 2025

Chaos & Game Theory

Long time friend-of-the-list, Luke Willis replied to my “Chaos Is A Ladder” message with the following about game theory (shared with permission):

This line always makes me think of game theory. If you’re in a winning position, you want to control the outcome as much as possible to ensure you keep your advantage through to the end of the game.

If you’re in a losing position, you want to use chaos, unpredictability, and randomness to create opportunities for your opponent to make a mistake.

Even at the highest levels of chess, where the best players have thousands of opening and endgame lines memorized, you win by either being more prepared or by forcing your opponent out of their prepared lines to win tactically.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

BUT!

What if you’re not one of the chess players?

What if you’re one of the pieces on the board?

This is where the chess metaphor breaks down because, in chess, the pieces don’t get to decide what they’re going to do next.

Fortunately, you DO get to decide what you’re going to do next.

So...

If you find that chaos has been thrust upon you, my advice is this:

Take stock of the situation, decide what you’re going to do next, and then do it.

Yours,

—J

BackRandomNext