Nothing is Random

“Ethan said . . . that he didn’t believe in randomness . . . He said he’d prove it tonight . . .

We drove up to Redwood City and played electronic darts at a bodega there . . . Karla, Ethan, and I. Ethan and I grew up in suburbia, and we’re both pretty good dart players (those nutty rumpus rooms). Karla’s never played darts before tonight”

Anyway, it was three darts per person, per round. Ethan put in four quarters and selected a four player round. We asked him why, and he said, “You’ll see”

Karla went first, me second, Ethan third, and then for the forth round we had what Ethan called, the ‘Random Round’ where instead of any of us trying, we’d each huck a dart standing on one foot, gulping a beer, throw it backwards . . . as silly as possible. Ministry of Silly Walks.

Needless to say, the Random Round won every single game, and always by a minimum of 100 points. It was scary.

Ethan said randomness is a useful shorthand for describing a pattern that’s bigger than anything we can hold in our minds. Letting go of randomness is one of the hardest decisions a person can make.

Ethan!”
- Douglas Coupland. Microserfs. HarperCollins Books: Toronto, 1995. pg 326-327