Agilism Principle 7: Life's Tetris, Not Chess

How to Make Decisions When the Next Piece of Life Is Always a Surprise

"No matter how sophisticated our choices, how good we are at dominating the odds, randomness will have the last word." – Nassim Taleb

Sixty-six million years ago, a random asteroid collided with Earth.

No grand plan, no destiny, just a chance event.

It wiped out the dinosaurs and opened the door for mammals. You exist today not because of design, but because of some random piece of rock.

Then there's you! Yes, you!

Of all the genetic combinations possible, out of millions of sperm, eggs, and moments in time, somehow you happened.

Shift the timeline even slightly, and your existence may have been erased.

You’re not the product of flawless strategy. You’re the outcome of countless unpredictable variables aligning in just the right way.

Randomness doesn’t just shape the cosmos; it shows up in our everyday lives.

Harrison Ford, for example, wasn’t seeking stardom. He was fixing a door on a film set when George Lucas happened to ask him to read lines for other actors.

That day, Han Solo was born—not from ambition, but from pure fluke. A career spanning galaxies began with a small favor.

Life isn’t chess. There’s no fixed set of pieces or a clear roadmap. It’s more like Tetris. The next block drops with no warning. You can’t control the sequence; you only get to decide your next move.

And that’s the whole game.

The Blind Spot We All Share

You nailed the job interview—but was it really just your preparation? Maybe the hiring manager had just finished a fantastic espresso, liked your last name, or needed someone on board before Friday.

A startup lands on the front page, hailed as revolutionary—but maybe it hit the algorithm lottery at 2:07 a.m., when everyone online was aimlessly scrolling.

You meet someone at a party. You talk, you connect, you get married. A hundred tiny, invisible factors could’ve kept your paths from crossing entirely.

These moments shape lives in ways that feel profound. And yet, we gloss over how absurdly accidental they are.

Here’s the blind spot we don’t like to confront: we massively underestimate the role of randomness.

Think about the birth lottery. You didn’t control the year, place, or social conditions into which you were born, yet these factors set much of the stage for your life.

Or career breaks. Timing, connections, and sheer randomness often outweigh raw talent.

Even relationships rest on fragile odds. One missed train or uninstalled app, and the narrative is completely different.

But instead of recognizing chance for what it is, we cling to appealing stories of effort and merit. These tidy tales reserve all the credit for skill and intention, leaving little room for serendipity. They’re simple. They protect our egos.

Remember Certainia? This is the place where we build our mental models. But Certainia cannot always be the fantasy land where deliberate effort yields predictable outcomes and chess metaphors still work.

Most of the time, we're not living in Certainia. We're in Randomia - a world shaped by falling blocks and random collisions.

Randomia is characterized by randomness. Pretend it doesn't exist and your game only gets more difficult.

Why Can't We See It Coming? Why Our Brains Resist Randomness

If randomness drives so much of life, why do we keep planning as if the universe follows a Swiss-rail schedule?

Because the same mental wiring that saved our ancestors on the savannah now trips us up in a 21st-century Tetris world.

Evolution didn’t program us for randomness; it programmed us for patterns, safety, and control. These reflexes once kept us alive, but today they lead us astray, turning an ancient feature into a modern bug.

Patternicity: Addicted to Meaning

Your brain is a meaning-making machine, constantly scanning for connections.

This instinct, known as patternicity or apophenia, helped early humans survive. Spotting a predator’s camouflaged outline in the bushes—even when it was just the wind—kept them in the gene pool. Evolution rewarded pattern-guessing, even if it led to false alarms.

But here’s the rub. Today, this wiring means we see faces in clouds, treat slot machines as if they’re “due,” or build life strategies around green smoothies and 5 a.m. alarms.

We instinctively believe life is chess, with clear rules and predictable outcomes, when reality more often resembles a chaotic cascade of Tetris blocks.

Predictability = Safety

Ever notice how uncertainty triggers anxiety?

That’s no accident; evolution hardwired us to crave predictability. Our ancestors lived in volatile environments where missing a danger cue could be fatal.

Back then, spotting phantom threats was a form of cheap insurance. Better to raise your heart rate over nothing than to end up dinner for a predator.

This predictability heuristic was an adaptive advantage millennia ago. But modern life doesn’t run on stone-age physics.

The rhythms of life today are neither stable nor consistent. Yet we cling to yesterday’s “rules” because predictability feels safe, even when it’s an illusion.

Control Bias: The Fallacy of Power

Now, mix in the illusion of control, our deeply ingrained belief that we can bend chance to our will. Whether it’s lucky socks on pitch day, executives crediting their foresight for market windfalls, or viral founders offering hack-filled playbooks, we’re drawn to ideas that reinforce our sense of agency. Admitting, “I don’t fully control the outcome” feels far less empowering than claiming mastery over chaos.

The truth, however, is that randomness doesn’t care about your rituals, beliefs, or résumé. Copy-paste solutions may feel satisfying, but they rarely work in a nonlinear world.

The Feature-Turned-Bug

These three biases—pattern addiction, the need for safety, and control bias—are relics of an environment our brains were designed for but no longer inhabit.

They were features for surviving the savannah, but they backfire in a Tetris-like world where unpredictability rules.

Instead, these instincts leave us clinging to yesterday’s playbooks, blind to randomness, and paralyzed by a false sense of control.

Why The Chessboard Mindset Doesn't Work in the Unpredictable World

For decades, we’ve been raised to see life as a game of chess. But that was only because we were living in the world of Certainia.

But again, we're operating in Randomia far more than we like to admit. In this land, chaos rains down unpredictably. The pieces don’t wait their turn.

It's no longer a place where mastery of strategy counts. In this world, what matters is how you make good decisions under conditions of uncertainty and randomness.

Here’s how the chessboard mindset crumbles in the face of randomness:

Problem 1: It Relies on Predictability That’s No Longer Real

Chess depends on known rules and perfect information. The Certainians love this game because in this world, everything is fair and people play by the rules.

But in Randomia, none of those things apply.

• Markets shift before strategies are even launched.
• A health crisis rewrites your priorities overnight.
• Career paths vanish mid-move.

In Randomia, the board can disappear from beneath you.

The old rules are constantly thrown out the window, and the game changes faster than you can react.

Try to play this game with a chess mindset, and you're doomed to failure.

Problem 2: It Links Strategy With Guaranteed Outcomes

The belief that “good moves lead to good results” is a law of Certainia.

But in Randomia, those laws don't work. You can:

• Write a genius marketing plan and still fail.
• Make a smart decision, but still be blindsided.
• Play it safe, and still lose.

Don't try to play this game by Certainian rules. You'll judge yourself by what happened, rather than how you played.

And that will only lead to shame, confusion, and false narratives about success.

What matters here is the process, never the outcome.

Problem 3: It Optimizes for Efficiency, Not Flexibility

Chess rewards precision. Tetris rewards flexibility.

In Certainia, you line up every move, follow the plan, and aim for flawless execution.

But in Randomia?

• Your script suddenly takes on a different shape mid-flow.
• Your strategy falls apart the moment a curveball hits.
• The next inbound piece is a complete unknown–and usually arrives swifly.

Randomia rewards your flexibility. If you apply rigid perfection, it will kill you.

In Randomia, the future belongs to those who can pivot quickly, not those who cling to a script.

Problem 4: It Overestimates Control, Underestimating Randomness

If you grew up in Certainia, you often heard people whispering seductive lies like, “If you’re smart enough, you’ll win.”

But the Randomians laugh at this. They know that you can never control the pieces. You only control how you place them.

In Certainia, we like to think mastery ensures victory, but in Randomia, the truth is:

• The best-laid plans can’t predict when a black swan will fly by.
• A brilliant strategy can never take into account all the permutations and combinations of factors that go into an outcome.
• Even the most prepared fail when randomness strikes.

Believing you’re fully in control sets you up for hubris, arrogance, blind faith, rosy-eyed optimism, and false hope.

Ignore the randomness, and life will punish your overreach.

Problem 5: It Turns Failure Into Personal Shame

In chess, losing means you made a mistake.

But in Randomia, failure is circumstantial.

When you cling to Certainia’s logic in the nonlinear world of Randomia, you internalize blame for things you never controlled:

• “I should’ve seen it coming.”
• "I should have known better."
• "I didn't try hard enough."
• “This failure defines my worth.”
• “I’m not good enough to succeed.”

But what if the real mistake was assuming life still followed chess rules?

Randomness isn’t moral. It’s mechanical.

Stop judging your worth by outcomes you could never have predicted.

The Ultimate Price of Playing Chess in a Tetris World

Clinging to a Certainian mindset when operating in Randomia can leave you feeling paralyzed, unmoored, confused, and emotionally fragile.

The trust cost?

• You build brittle systems devoid of optionality. So you're unable to adapt in real time.
• You start to treat yourself as a failure. Or worse, you blame others around you. You're unable to account for the factors outside your control.
• You miss out on opportunities while waiting for clarity that never comes.

Randomness isn’t a disruption to the game of life; it is the game.

The people who thrive today aren’t those who plan 12 moves ahead, but those who can adapt to what just dropped from the sky.

To succeed, you develop the Randomian mindset. Start building systems that flex, focus on strong decisions over perfect outcomes, and learn how to flow with the game, not against it.

Randomness isn’t the enemy. It’s the playing field. How you move is what makes the difference.

The Overlooked Truth: Randomness Isn't a Glitch. It's the Operating System

We’re rarely taught to respect randomness—we’re taught to outsmart it.

From day one, we're told that life is game of strategy–where smart moves, determination, grit, staying the course lead to success. If you experience a poor outcome, it means you did something wrong.

But that's the lie they tell you in Certainia.

In the real world of Randomia–outcomes don't cleanly reflect efforts. And success doesn't always reward those who (think they) deserve it.

But here's what most of us fail to grasp:

Randomness isn’t an anomly. It's a world in itself.

• The city you were born in? Random.
• The mentor who shaped your career? Pure fluke.
• The perfect opportunity that came at just the right moment? Luck.

Yet, we approach life as if randomness is an occasional lightning strike, a rare anomaly beyond the carefully constructed boundaries of our plans.

It’s not. Randomness is constant. It’s everywhere.

The "Resulting" Trap: How Confusing Outcomes with Decisions Can Mislead Us

Ever heard of the term “resulting”?

Annie Duke, a former professional poker player, highlights a common cognitive trap known as “resulting.” This happens when we judge the quality of a decision solely based on the outcome it produced.

However, outcomes don’t always reflect the quality of a decision. Life doesn’t guarantee good results from good decisions every time.

1. A good decision leading to a good outcome.
2. A good decision leading to a bad outcome.
3. A bad decision leading to a bad outcome.
4. A bad decision leading to a good outcome.

Essentially, in life, two factors are at play: the hand you’re dealt and how you choose to play it.

While you can’t control the cards you’re given or the randomness of the draw, your response is entirely within your control.

In an unpredictable world, evaluating yourself strictly by short-term outcomes is not just unhelpful; it’s inaccurate. You might make the best possible decision and still lose, or gamble on a poor choice and win due to sheer luck.

Judging success solely by results in a world dominated by randomness is almost always misleading. Worse, it teaches you all the wrong lessons. You can make flawless choices and still fail. Conversely, you might make reckless choices and get lucky.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

This is the fundamental principle of Agilism:

• Instead of thinking: "Careful planning and hard work will guarantee success..."
• Shift to: "I live in a world of probabilities. My focus is on making smart decisions under uncertainty—not ensuring specific outcomes."

This perspective is liberating.

You no longer see every setback as a personal failure.

You stop viewing every success as undeniable proof of perfection.

You move beyond the binary of “right” and “wrong” or "failure" and "success" and begin to evaluate choices by how resilient and repeatable they are.

Rather than trying to outwit randomness, you learn to adapt and thrive alongside it, building a life that moves fluidly with uncertainty.

Why Randomness Awareness Matters More Than Ever

Predictability, as you once knew it, isn’t coming back.

The future promises more uncertainty, sudden shifts, technological breakthroughs, market jolts, and societal transformations than any generation has dealt with before.

The stable, linear path is gone.

If you're thinking like a Beringian, you may not want to go back there.

Here’s the reality check no one tells you upfront.

There’s no perfect blueprint. There is no such thing as a "guaranteed outcomes." The "playbook" might work today, but don't rely on it tomorrow.

The rules in Randomia are very different now. Just like Beringia, the very foundation you’re standing on is shifting.

That’s why adopting a randomness-aware mindset isn’t just smart; it’s critical. Thriving in today’s world demands flexibility, agility, and a willingness to see randomness not as a threat but as an advantage.

The Old Model Relied on Deterministic Thinking

• The New Mindset Embraces Randomness: Plans used to follow a simple formula: make the "right" moves, and you’d get the "right" results. But in a volatile, chaotic world, linear plans crack under pressure. What works now? Accepting uncertainty as a constant and learning to adapt instead of engineering unpredictability out of everything.

The Old Model Mistakes Control for Skill

• The New Mindset Focuses on Decision Quality Under Uncertainty: Success was once tied to precision and skillful execution, but randomness demands a new approach. Good decision-making matters more than trying to control outcomes. Focus on decision quality under uncertainty, not perfection.

The Old Model Demands Perfection

• The New Mindset Encourages Rapid Response: Gone are the days of flawless plans and highly scripted strategies. Perfection is brittle. Adaptability wins. Build the ability to pivot and respond quickly to “what comes next.” That’s where your edge lies.

The Old Model Creates Fragile Systems

• The New Mindset Values Antifragility: Rigid, one-track plans fail under the weight of disruption. The randomness-aware approach is build around designing antifragile systems that don’t just survive volatility but gain strength from it.

The Old Model Views Failure as Deeply Personal

• The New Mindset Rreframes Failure as Feedback: Equating outcomes with self-worth turns setbacks into devastating blows. A randomness-aware mindset reframes failure as feedback, a natural byproduct of engaging with an unpredictable landscape.

The Old Model is Obsessed With Results

• The New Mindset Focuses on Process, Not Outcomes: Obsession with results blinds you to what matters most: the process. Prioritizing decision-making quality and long-term growth is far more effective than chasing temporary wins. Master your process; the outcomes will follow.

Final Thought:

Success doesn’t come from fighting randomness but from aligning yourself with it.

The randomness-aware mindset isn’t optional. It’s how you future-proof your life, your career, and your legacy.

What “Accepting Randomness” Doesn’t Mean

When people hear “randomness,” it’s easy to imagine chaos, laziness, or even a sense of giving up.

But that’s not what this principle is about.

Accepting randomness is about intentional, agile living. It’s a mindset shift that lets you thrive in an unpredictable world—not drift through it.

To clear up any misconceptions, here’s what embracing randomness is not:

❌ It’s NOT Cynicism

You’re not throwing your hands up and saying, “Nothing matters.”

This isn’t nihilism. It’s Agilism.

The difference? Agilism is about taking decisive action, fully aware that the ground beneath you might shift.

You don’t wait for certainty to act. Instead, you move forward with intent, knowing the path might change.

❌ It’s NOT Chaos Worship

This doesn’t mean abandoning plans or surrendering to disorder.

You’re still planning—but your plans are flexible, designed to adapt rather than resist. Yes, strategy is important, but it’s dynamic, not set in stone.

❌ It’s NOT Dodging Responsibility

Far from outsourcing your outcomes to luck, this mindset demands more from you.

It’s about owning your responses to events—even those you couldn’t control.

You’re responsible for your process, decisions, and ability to adjust in real-time.

❌ It’s NOT Victimhood

Some of us love to blame the universe when life doesn’t go the way we expect.

But that's not the Agilist way.

This principle teaches you to keep moving forward, no matter the hand you’ve been dealt.

Playing the victim keeps you stuck in the past. Building an adaptable mindset keeps you in motion.

❌ It’s NOT Doing Nothing

Accepting randomness isn’t a hall pass for inaction.

On the contrary, it’s an invitation to act more often. It’s about lowering the stakes, running more experiments, and increasing your luck surface area.

When outcomes are unpredictable, the smartest move is making more moves.

Summary

“Accepting randomness” isn’t about letting go of control entirely.

It’s about releasing the illusion of control and replacing it with something even stronger.

Think of it as trading rigidity for resilience, predictability for awareness, and fear for the confidence to act—even when the road ahead isn’t clear.

Start designing your life for what is, not what you wish it to be.

What Does It Mean to Embrace Randomness?

Now that we’ve clarified what embracing randomness doesn’t mean, here’s how the principle unfolds when applied to real life.

These six attributes provide a framework for living with more agility and adaptability in an unpredictable world:

✅ It IS a Shift From Prediction to Positioning

Success isn’t about having a crystal-clear view of the future.

It’s about building systems flexible enough to thrive no matter what comes your way. Imagine playing Tetris—not trying to predict the next piece but mastering the ability to fit it quickly and effectively when it arrives.

✅ It IS a Way to Upgrade Your Decision-Making

In randomness, good outcomes aren’t always linked to good decisions. This principle invites you to focus on your process instead of obsessing over results. The goal is to consistently improve how you decide—even when the road ahead feels foggy.

✅ It IS Motion Over Mastery

Forget the idea of a perfect 10-step plan.

Instead, get comfortable with a mindset built for movement. Life rarely follows a blueprint. Small experiments, quick pivots, and short feedback loops are the tools that keep you learning, adapting, and progressing.

✅ It IS About Building Antifragile Systems

Embracing randomness isn’t about surrendering to the forces around it.

It’s about the intentional design and creation of systems that don’t just endure uncertainty but thrive in it.

Think of it as engineering options into your life, so you can bounce back when life throws a curveball and seize opportunities when they arise.

✅ It IS a New Kind of Resilience

Resilience isn’t just about endurance.

It’s about intelligent adaptability.

It’s showing up with curiosity and intention, knowing that randomness is a feature—not a bug.

It’s recognizing the game can change in an instant but staying equipped to play.

✅ It IS the Emotional Art of Thriving in Randomia

This mindset isn’t purely logical. It’s deeply psychological.

It’s about letting go of your need for certainty, finding balance in motion, and cultivating the emotional calm to say, “I don’t know what’s next, but I’m ready.”

The Takeaway

This principle doesn’t teach you to avoid randomness.

It teaches you to use it. Success in a nonlinear world isn’t about clinging to old strategies. It’s about agility.

And the randomness-aware mindset equips you to show up for life’s twists and turns with the tools to thrive, again and again.

Final Thoughts on Embracing Randomness

Stop thinking of randomness as the enemy.

The real danger lies in denying its presence.

When you strive for a perfectly predictable life, you're building a fragile one.

But when you start seeing life as Tetris–not chess, you open up a whole new way of approaching the unknown: the ability to respond, change course, adapt, and create new momentum.

It's about making the best play with the pieces you are given, even when they don't fit seamlessly.

The future doesn’t reward those who follow a script, a plan, or a playbook. It rewards those who can keep making course corrections. Success doesn’t hinge on the most brilliant blueprint. It thrives on systems that bend and evolve with the circumstances.

When life throws you an unplanned, irregular-shaped piece into your timeline, resist the urge to freeze, point fingers, or blame the algorithm.

Instead, do this. Breathe. Shift your perspective. Rotate. Adjust. Take the next step. And keep moving

And if things don’t work out this round? That’s fine. You reset. You get to play the game again.

TL;DR - Life's Tetris, Not Chess

You can’t predict what piece is next, but you can control how you react.

Planning matters, but adaptability is key.

Randomness doesn’t mean a lack of control. Your strength lies in preparation, recognizing patterns, and how you respond.

Don’t judge a decision solely by its outcome (“resulting”). A smart move can still end in a poor result. Focus on the strategy, not just the score.

Build flexible systems that thrive in uncertainty rather than relying on perfect forecasts.

Stay in motion. Experiment with small, calculated risks. Be ready to adapt.

True resilience (antifragility) is about letting go of control and being equipped to handle whatever life throws at you.

You can’t win by predicting the next move.

You win by being ready to act when it comes.

💡 Reflect:

• Where in your life are you clinging to control, predictability, or perfection?
• What beliefs or systems tend to fall apart when things don’t go as planned?

✍️ Write:

• Identify 3 recent moments where unexpected events influenced the outcome—for better or worse.
• Now, think about your reaction. Did you freeze? Adjust? Assign blame? Find a way to adapt?

🔁 Reframe:

• What if your goal wasn’t certainty, but adaptability?
• What small step, experiment, or decision could you take this week without needing a guaranteed outcome?

FAQs: Facing the Truth About Randomness

Reflection Challenge:

Which of these questions makes you the most uncomfortable?

Choose it, take an hour to reflect on it, and journal without holding back. Use that discomfort to inspire a design decision.

That decision is your first intentional step into Randomia.

Next Steps:

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