
Your Life Is Tetris. Stop Playing It Like Chess - Thibaut
https://medium.com/life-learning/your-life-is-tetris-stop-playing-it-like-chess-4baac6b2750d
======
matheweis
was posted 3 weeks ago
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10890548](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10890548)

~~~
pdm55
And more comments here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10958399](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10958399)

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edent
> 1\. In life, your only opponent is yourself.

Or, you know, people who actually want to kill you. Or a state that wants to
disenfranchise you. Or abusive peers and parents. Or...

> In life, things don’t get harder — they just get faster.

Until you reach middle age - and your back starts going, your hearing fades,
your glasses prescription gets stronger...

> In life, you can’t control the board.

Unless you look at likely outcomes for your socio-economic class. Sure, you
don't know what's coming next - but you know that a higher degree usually
leads to better employment prospect. Saving for a pension now will set you up
for retirement.

> In life, no one tells you when you’ve won.

Really? You don't think society places great emphasis on milestone
achievements like marriage, reproduction, employment success, sporting
prowess, etc? Only you know what will make you truly happy - but everyone will
be _very_ keen to tell you if you're a winner or a loser.

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varelse
>Really? You don't think society places great emphasis on milestone
achievements like marriage, reproduction, employment success, sporting
prowess, etc? Only you know what will make you truly happy - but everyone will
be very keen to tell you if you're a winner or a loser.

IMO it's more like gamification:

Achievement Unlocked: $100K of student loans!

Achievement Unlocked: Wage Slave!

Achievement Unlocked: Something's in the oven!

Achievement Unlocked: Mortgage!

Achievement Unlocked: Couples counseling.

Achievement Unlocked: Substance addiction...

Achievement Unlocked: Divorced...

Achievement Unlocked: Rebound!!!

Achievement Unlocked: Downsized...

Achievement Unlocked: Child support...

Achievement Unlocked: Rehired!!!

Achievement Unlocked: New love!!!

Achievement Unlocked: Foreclosure...

Achievement Unlocked: 40...

Achievement Unlocked: Life-threatening health issue...

Achievement Unlocked: Recovered!!!

Achievement Unlocked: Remarried!!!

Achievement Unlocked: Divorce times 2...

Achievement Unlocked: Technological Unemployment...

Achievement Unlocked: Back to School!!!

Etc...

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CPLX
It's neither. Life is like poker, combining skill, random chance, and the need
to understand and anticipate the behavior of other human beings while they do
the same with you.

Each of the games mentioned has only two of these three elements.

Also in poker people start with different amounts of money and that matters.

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fierycatnet
Yep, but you also need to sit down with a certain amount of money, otherwise
you'll be playing a different game and at different stakes.

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jeremysmyth
Neither Tetris nor Chess, but Dwarf Fortress.

[http://www.pcgamer.com/into-the-deep-its-time-to-learn-
how-t...](http://www.pcgamer.com/into-the-deep-its-time-to-learn-how-to-play-
dwarf-fortress/)

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-
of...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-
fortress.html)

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Freaky
Losing to a Forgotten Beast made out of vomit and pus doesn't sound quite as
fun in real life :(

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Procrastes
Life is Calvin Ball[1]. Any rules we may identify are subject to abrupt,
arbitrary, and often incomprehensible, change. Best to just enjoy the
insanity.

1.[http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Calvinball](http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Calvinball)

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logicchains
Personally I think life is like Backgammon: there are no absolute certainties,
just probabilities, and due to this an expectiminimax-like approach with good
heuristics is more effective than trying to peer far into the future.

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ninko_balboa
This article got the necessary treatment from /r/chess weeks ago:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/418pcl/life_chess_an...](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/418pcl/life_chess_and_tetris/?submit_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2Flife-
learning%2Fyour-life-is-tetris-stop-playing-it-like-
chess-4baac6b2750d%23.jjzoqv34n&already_submitted=true&submit_title=Your+Life+Is+Tetris.+Stop+Playing+It+Like+Chess).

I'm leaning towards our lives are more like Chess but more. Of course our
biases create the framework of our reality.

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dimonomid
Yeah, I've already heard something like: "Life is just like Tetris: there's no
way to win, you can just stay alive for longer or shorter time"

I enjoyed the read, thank you.

~~~
SixSigma
Or: your mistakes are always visible and your successes disappear.

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apricot
Oh, I like this one.

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johnchristopher
Comparing `life' to chess or Tetris or anything really just shows how much you
haven't lived long enough yet.

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ericzawo
I liked this but vehemently disagree based on a few of the reasons others have
mentioned. I will say my old chess teacher had an excellent quote about life
that also applies to Tetris. "There's only ever three moves, a good move, a
bad move, and the right move." I still say that to myself all the time when
things get hard.

~~~
cableshaft
That's an interesting quote. I get it, but I was curious if you had an example
of how you've utilized the quote in your life?

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ericzawo
Mostly when I face people that get a rise out of me, whether in a personal or
business setting. How best do I react? What's the correct move? Do I respond
in kind, with hostility, or is there a better way?

That quote has wandered into my mind in innumerable number of situations.

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nashashmi
This is the second time I am seeing and since the time I saw it first, I have
begun thinking that life is an analogy to whatever game you make it, whether
that be candy crush, bejeweled, chess, hearts, poker, ... tetris, etc.

My own view on chess and life is that you shouldn't play it by planning 10
steps to hit just one target, but as one of 10 targets. Transform that concept
to whatever game you wish.

These statements serve as analogies we use to communicate what life is like or
how we understand it. For that reason, I feel the title should have been "How
life is a Tetris game and opponentless."

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GuiA
> This is the second time I am seeing and since the time I saw it first, I
> have begun thinking that life is an analogy to whatever game you make it,
> whether that be candy crush, bejeweled, chess, hearts, poker, ... tetris,
> etc.

Metaphors are like books, they can be about anything®

~~~
douche
Even when they are similes :-)

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tejohnso
Fun piece but it lacks any realistic depth.

For example the claim that "your score can increase to infinity, if you just
push yourself harder" is a concept that is untrue and obsolete.

[http://www.monbiot.com/2011/11/07/the-self-attribution-
falla...](http://www.monbiot.com/2011/11/07/the-self-attribution-fallacy/)

Further, the realities of privilege, oppression and discrimination are
completely ignored.

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EwanG
I think the series "No Game No Life" covered this best -

"There’s no way to know the rules or the goal, yet there are 7 billion people
making whatever moves they want. If you lose too much, or win too much, there
are penalties. You can’t pass your turn, and if you talk too much, you’ll be
ostracized. There are no parameters and no way to even know the genre. This
world is just a crappy game."

\- Perhaps a tad melodramatic, but still...

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phillipwei
I couldn't find any record of this guy playing chess in either USCF or FIDE.

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kelukelugames
More life advice from a 20 something? Oh Medium.

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DonHopkins
Life is totalistic. It depends only on the total value of you and your
neighbors. [1]

[1]
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TotalisticCellularAutomaton.htm...](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TotalisticCellularAutomaton.html)

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Havoc
Really enjoyed this article (most of it). Especially the part about life not
being a zero sum game & a mindset like that being a disadvantage and life
being essentially a race against time knowing that "losing" is inevitable.

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vaadu
I'd just like to play the old tetris on my new android. The new tetris is a
POS.

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methehack
A short, elegant piece of writing with some real insight.

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ChristianGeek
The present is like Tetris, the future is like chess.

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baby
Your life is neither Tetris nor Chess. It's Go.

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xyzzy4
Or maybe life is like chess with timed turns.

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vasaulys
people get way too hung up on analogies

