The Dice of Life

There is this thought that occurs to me now and then whenever I feel a bit low. Why are the lives of some people better than others? Some people attain success quite early in their life while for some of them success eludes them for a long time

For example, a group of friends graduate from the same college. Some of them get a good job immediately, move up in their career and get married and settle in life

Some of them get a job which they might not be happy about (the job might not be to their interest/the pay might be a bit low etc). They might do another degree after this (like an M.Tech/MBA) post which they might land a good job after which they might get married and settle in life

Some of them might have done both these and still will not be happy with their life and will not be sure about what to do in life.

It got me thinking as to why this disparity exists. All of them graduated at the same time. Why does life play out differently for each person?

I formulated a theory for this which seemed quite interesting to me and thought of penning it down here

Consider a experiment where you randomly pick 1000 people and put them in a room and give each one of them a pair of dice. You announce a game: Each person gets unlimited number of throws

The moment a person throws a pair of 6 (or a “double 6”), he/she gets a reward

There is no competition here. Nothing like the first person to throw a double 6 wins or the first 10 people win. As and when a person throws a double 6, they win a reward

Now what would happen?

Let us first get a bit mathematical and calculate the probability of this event happening (Being someone who likes math, could not pass up the opportunity to bring in math here)

When you throw a die, it can give one of the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 —implying there are 6 possible outcomes

When you throw a pair of dice, below are the following outcomes:

You get both 1’s in both the dice

You get a 1 in the first die & 2 in the second die

and so on…

I have summarized all the possibilities in the below table

As you can see, there are totally 36 possible outcomes. Out of this there is only one possible way of getting two 6’s (which is the output we are interested in)

Hence, the probability of getting two 6’s is equal to 1/36 or approx 2.78% which is quite low

Armed with this, let us now see what happens

Out of the 1000 people, some people (a very small set) might get the double 6 in their 1st try itself

Some of them might get it in the 2nd try

Some might get it maybe in the 10th try

Seeing these guys, those who still haven’t got it might curse their luck and try more fervently

Someone might hit it on the 25th try

There might be a chance few who would have tried it 50 or 100 times without luck on their side. They might be cursing their luck

But it is of no fault of theirs. It all depends on the dice that they have been given. It wasn’t that some people were purposefully given these dices

We can draw parallels between this and life

Those who get settled early on in their life can be compared to those who throw a double dice within the first 5 tries

Those who have graduated from college and haven’t been able to get a stable job after another degree and 2 years can be compared to those who haven’t got a double 6 even after 100 tries

Who knows? The guy who didn’t get after even 100 tries, he might get it in the 110th try or the 150th try (depending on whatever is written for him!!!). But the question is, is he willing to roll 150 times?

Same with life. It is just a question of how long you are willing to hold on. You are jobless for the past 5 years. Who knows, maybe you might land a good job in the next 6 months or maybe in the next 2 years. But the question is, are you willing to hold on till then?

That is what life is all about. No one knows what is written for you. The only question you need to answer is: Are you willing to keep rolling the dice till you get the double 6? Do you have the perseverance to keep trying your best till you hit it big?

Hope is the only thing that keeps most people going. The hope that in the next throw, you will roll the double 6. This hope is what makes a person apply for the 201st job after not hearing back/being rejected from the 200 applications he has submitted till date. Agree!! Seeing others around you land jobs/internships might make you sad and make you ask the question “Why not me?”. It might make you angry on yourself and make you question yourself and your abilities. But the important thing is to never lose hope and keep trying. Somewhere out there, is a job or company who will appreciate your talent and hire you for your skills

If you are reading this post and are at a low point in your life, do not lose hope on life. Be confident on your abilities and keep rolling the dice. You will eventually roll the double 6 and win the game of life

Would love to hear your thoughts on this “theory” — any opposing thoughts/rebuttals are more than welcome

Thanks for reading!!!