The Warthog

File under Understanding the Problem

“A lot of what happens to us – success in our careers, investments, and in our life decisions, both major and minor – is as much the result of random factors as the result of skill, preparedness, and hard work.” – Leonard Mlodinow The Drunkard’s Walk

I’m going to start a few posts on the concept of randomness in our lives and how, despite our best efforts, it has as much an effect on our lives as our conscious decisions, yet we tend to neglect it.

I’ll start by telling the story of a not so bright senior in high school (it’s me by the way). My senior year, in addition to applying for colleges, I applied for military scholarships through ROTC. I always felt drawn to the military and thought if I could get them to pay for college, well then, bonus. For some reason I was always enamored by the Army ground support aircraft, the A-10 warthog.

Source

In hopes of flying it someday, I applied for the Army ROTC scholarship and I figured I would apply for the Navy scholarship as well, as a back-up. Fortunately, I got the Army scholarship and set off to school in Florida with my sights set on one day taking to the air in the A-10. It wasn’t until halfway through my sophomore year that I realized that I hadn’t seen or heard any mention of the A-10 in the army arsenal in the past year and a half. Upon inquiring with our instructors they looked at me with a puzzled look on their faces and responded that it was an Air Force airplane. I applied for the wrong scholarship. To this day I’m not sure why I thought it was the other way around.

Now at this time I had already grown to love my school and the Army and I wasn’t really upset in the least because I still saw benefits and good things for my future. But had I known it was an Air Force plane from the beginning and applied for the Air Force ROTC scholarship and NOT gotten it, I’m not so sure I would have had the same reaction. I would have been devastated - my future in shambles.

I think the latter instance is how we react when it appears our happiness is tied to one outcome; when success can only be achieved through one endstate. But think of all the random events that have directed your life one way or another when there was no obvious outcome determined. Your life would certainly be different, but would it be any less successful, or would you be any less happy?

I’m sure you’ve all thought of this before. What if you had a different roommate in college, or were assigned to a different dorm? Or what if you turned left instead of right? How different would your life be? In each case there is no obvious difference to your choices at that instant, yet the outcome could be wildly different. There are many more of those decisions everyday than ones where we understand the outcome and yet we get extremely upset when the latter decisions “don’t go our way.”

The Daily Antidote
You turn random events into successful outcomes every day. Do the same thing with events that don’t seem to go your way, and quit worrying about them.

The Song of the Day
In honor of a song played at 87% of all college parties in the late 80's and early 90's, the song of the day is a live version of the Violent Femmes’ Kiss Off.