I don't believe in randomness. Despite that, a central tenet of my daily philosophy is "shit happens", which is essentially embracing the randomness and unpredictability of everyday life. It seems contradictory, and that's because I set it up to seem that way; otherwise this would be boring as hell to read and write, douchebag. Stop picking nits.
"Shit happens" vs "Everything happens for a reason" is a debate that has raged on over the ages, albeit under different names. And the debate probably hasn't "raged on" so much as these two differing viewpoints on life have each crossed everyones mind at one point or another.
On a macro level, people who seem a bit more uptight and fatalistic tend to fall into the "everything happens for a reason" camp more often than "shit happens", and vice versa for people who are more laid back and lackadaisical. This is most plainly visible whenever something tragic happens and extremist groups attribute it to being "the will of God", or something like that. I would try to think of an example of when "shit happens" people make a fuss, but lackadaisical people tend not to make fusses. I'm sure you can think of an example if you try, champ.
On a micro level, people tend to attribute positive events to "everything happening for a reason", and negative events to "shit just happening". Get into college? Of course you did! You put in the time, effort, and kept yourself out of trouble; now this is just your hard work paying off. Everything happens for a reason, you know! Did your ice cream fall on the floor? Don't worry, it's not your fault. It's windy out, and they really should make those cones easier to handle. Shit happens, man. "
It sounds a bit meaner when you flip the two: Get into college? That's cool, I guess. They probably picked you at random or something. They might've even given you a spot over someone who deserved it more, but who knows. Shit happens. Drop your ice cream? Of course you did. You were holding the cone like a jerk-off. Why didn't you face south to shield yourself from the wind? Everything happens for a reason.
It's probably equally as accurate to assume that people tend to classify big, life altering events under "everything happens for a reason", and minor occurances as "shit happens", regardless of positive or negative impact. Didn't get that big job you interviewed for? Don't worry, something better will come up. Everything happens for a reason. Found 20 bucks on the floor? Good for you, must be your lucky day. Shit happens, and sometimes that shit is good shit.
It makes sense, though, doesn't it? If something big goes right or wrong in your life, it probably has something to do with the work you did or didn't put into it. If something small happens to break your way, it's a lot easier to chuck it up to good or bad luck and keep on moving. It's a way to simultaneously feed your ego and keep it in check. You got that job because you worked hard and deserved it, not because you happened to get interviewed after the manager had taken his daily shit and xanax break. You found that 20 because you happened to be in the right place at the right time, not because you just watched that guy get jumped and saw that the robbers forgot to pick up that last bill before the cops came. Knowing when to factor in randomness is a quaint way of keeping yourself peacefully at the center of your own universe.
What's that? Oh yeah, I don't believe in randomness.
Every story you've ever heard essentially boils down to one of two conclusions: right place, right time; or wrong place, wrong time. What about the other possibilities? Right place, wrong time; and wrong place, right time? Well, those don't end up turning into stories, because nothing happens. Life goes on as usual and no fuss is made over it. It takes a lot of circumstances coming together for an event to be notable. Multiple unseen forces have to coalesce, the stars have to align, and everything has to break the right way for you so that your soufflé doesn't pop, or deflate, or do whatever the hell soufflé's do. If it all breaks right, you get your soufflé all crisp (they're crisp, right?) and tasty, just like you planned. Everything happens for a reason. If your asshole neighbor decides to randomly fire his machine gun in the air just as your souffle is coming out of the oven? Well, tough cookies, now you have a flat soufflé. Random shit happens like that sometimes. Except it wasn't random, even if you didn't expect it. Your neighbor had been planning to let his AK spray at 11:47 AM that Sunday for two weeks now. Everything happens for a reason.
Those unseen forces that have to coalesce? Well, just because they're unseen doesn't mean they don't exist. You may not be able to account for all or any of them, but that doesn't make them any more or less real or significant. When you flip a coin in the air and call heads or tails, you probably feel as though you're combining two random outcomes: whatever you decide to call, and whatever side the coin lands on. One event is more predictable than the other; you may always call heads during a coin flip. The other feels like it's completely up to chance. It's not. What side the coin lands on is a direct function of a multitude of factors: how strongly you flipped the coin, where your thumb was placed on the side of the coin, how far the coin has to go before it hits the ground (or your hand, or whatever), the wind blowing through the room, the weight of the coin, how dirty the coin is on either side, and the list goes on and on. The same is true for any event that you would describe as random. There are variables and scales out there to quantify anything and everything that ever happens, randomness is just what happens when we can't or don't account for all or enough of them.
Theoretically, you could measure all these variables, draw up ridiculous equations, and accurately predict anything you want, ever.
Practically, what's the point?
You don't need to know everything to know what's right or wrong, and trusting your gut will take you a lot farther than you think. (Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it at length in his book, Blink; of which the remainder of this paragraph will essentially be a recap) That's essentially the point of having a subconscious, the ability of your brain to process large amounts of data and variables before you even realize it, so you don't have to break out an abbacus every time you go to choose your breakfast cereals. Even still, with all the information that's processed without you even realizing it, there's still too much information for us to process, and the end result of events is eventually labled as "randomness". Eventually we accept that there is too much information and too much going on at once to predict or control much of anything and we stop calling it randomness, and we start calling it life.
Randomness is life. Life is randomness.
So, I'm saying that I don't believe in life then?
No, although I concede that I haven't done the best job of clearly setting up my point. But hey, this is my blog, so screw off, douchetard. Randomness was just a proxy I used to address the two conflicting schools of life philosophy that I've encountered over the years, "Shit happens" vs "Everything happens for a reason". Rather than finding a happy cop-out solution that falls somewhere in the middle, I've come up with a solution that embraces both extremes:
Shit happens, but not by accident.
Everyday we are faced with the fact that there is much more going on in the universe than we can properly and efficiently account for, giving rise to the concepts of randomness and luck. At a slower rate, we are met with the gratification and reaffirmation of that which we can control; putting in hard work to make progress, developing a sound process towards achieving a better life, reaching goals and hitting milestones. The two sensations feel different enough from each other for us to learn to not associate one with the other, but really they're more like two edges of the same sword than two sides of the same coin. They work in unison with each other at every moment, whether we realize it or not.
It's easy to see this unison in one of the examples I listed above, combining the hard work you had put in preparing for an interview with the seemingly random luck of having your interview scheduled after the manager puts himself into a good mood, which he probably has scheduled at the same time every day, thereby decreasing the randomness of the event. But the same applies to smaller events. Consider the example of finding a 20 dollar bill. What at first seems like you stumbling onto someone else's misfortune is really just a product of your walking schedule lining up with whatever wind patterns and muggings that took place to get the 20 dollar bill there at that time and place. It seems random, but that's only because you couldn't predict it, and that's mostly because you didn't have all the numbers, and thats definitely because you had bigger things to worry about. But it was going to happen, whether you paid it any mind or not.
There's a train of thought in quantum physics that a friend and I discussed once in passing (aren't we fancy, talking about quantum physics and stuff on the train?). I don't remember all the details (aren't we fancy, talking about quantum physics and stuff while drinking on the train?), but it was something related to Schroedinger's uncertainty principle and taking into account all of the possible paths a molecule could've taken to reach it's current position (I swear we're not that pretentious all the time. But then again, if you find that pretentious, screw off). Basically, when trying to calculate such a thing, you realize quickly how much information there is to take into account, which is why quantum physicists are the ones who usually try to rationalize that stuff, not drunk guys on trains. The other thing you realize when putting the data together, is that there is usually a reason that the molecule took the path it took, and that the slightest of factors could've influenced it one way or another, but the path it took ultimately ends up being the most logical one. Randomness starts seeming a lot less random.
Unltimately this might all not add up to much. Control what you can, accept what you can't, learn to tell the difference between the two. It's a life lesson we all have to learn one way or another, and you've probably heard it a million times over before I broke it down as such. There are plenty of things you can't control, and knowing that probably won't help you control them. But there are plenty of things you can control, maybe more than you had realized initially. Something's controlling them, right? Why not you? How can you tell the difference between the two? Don't ask me. I'm still figuring that out myself.
C
