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SCIENCE_OF_LUCK

                                             October 31, 2009


The Doctor is capricious,                   WAY
he dives into the unknown
often unarmed and
ill-equipped, relying on
his ability to improvise      "But you have no weapons, no plan--"
a solution.                   "I know.  And doesn't it scare you to death?"

   The Doctor is insouciant in
   the face of death... to the
   point where many regard him
   as callous.


Spike flows like water, he
avoids over-thinking a problem
and reacts spontaneously --         Jet has a more intellectual approach,
when they "come at him with         a Zen/"Art of War" understanding of
great force", he controls the       things-- He lectures about how Shogi
force, rather than meeting it       is practice at getting into your
with force of his own (or at        opponents mind, you look ahead many
least, that's the theory).          moves before making your own move.

   He moves through                             But then: Jet
   life with an air of    As with Coroto        cannot predict
   relaxed boredom.       Maltese.  "One        Spike's moves.
                          could see
                          right away that         Without a plan of his
                          he was a man of         own, it's difficult
                          destiny"                to counter-plan against
                                                  him.
                            When one has
                            fate on one's            But then, people
                            side, one need           who really are that
                            not expend               spontaneous are
                            effort.                  often relatively
                                                     easy to manipulate,
                                                     aren't they?

          Neither Spike nor The Doctor
          are really happy: they carry
          with them a noble sadness, a
          sense of tragedy.


                Planning is difficult,
                perhaps impossible, so
                we fantasize about
                being someone who does
                not need to plan.

                We would like to be beyond
                worry, which shows that we          The ideal:
                are definitely not.
                                                    "The coward dies a thousand
                                                    deaths, the hero dies but
                                                    once."


   The detailed plan is an impossibility,
   because foreknowledge of circumstances
   is impossible. In any real game
   there's more than one competitor:
   there are too many opponents to
   predict what they will do.

   And yet, living without a
   plan seems foolhardy.

   So: there would seem to be a need for

               a loose plan,
               an open plan,
               a rough road map.

      And the plan has to include an awareness of
      circumstances, a syncing-up with the current
      state of the real, a strategy of revision.

            Reams must have been written
            about this sort of thing.  Is           There might, perhaps
            there any point in reading them?        be a point in crossing
                                                    borders in the traditional
                 (I can generate my own             fields... military planning,
                  vapid platitudes.)                business planning, personal
                                                    plans, gaming, and so on.

                                                         But I'm sure reams
                                                         have been written
                                                         about this as well.

                                                         (E.g. that Silicon
                                                         Valley fad for
                                                         "The Art of War".)



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