Tenet 4: Roll the dice to minimize indecision

There is a sense of power in executing a decision, and there is genuine freedom in relinquishing the need to make one. Indecision is one of the most frequent and clear-cut cases of helplessness we encounter. The experience can be painful, but it is also a useful awareness trigger that is ripe for growth activation. Dice Theory offers an empowering antidote to utilize and reimagine indecision.

Indecision exists because we lack the ability to perfectly discern optimal paths in the throes of a constantly changing universe. The universe operates at countless orders of magnitude more complexity than we do. To experience uncertainty is a perfectly reasonable experience that should bear no shame. In fact, to not experience uncertainty would be delusional. We overestimate the decisiveness of others because we rarely witness their hesitations - we primarily observe the actions that follow. We should recognize the normality of indecision; however, given the side effects we should also consider methods to improve how we deal with it. Indecision can be impractical, slowing us down from taking actions that can feed learning. It can lead to cycles of disabling self-confidence, where we lose faith in our ability to parse the world and be a driver of its activity. Spending time in a state of indecision also reinforces disproportionate attachment to low-value outcomes, taking space and attention away from more important considerations.

High-impact decisions tend to involve multiple factors which provide a wider basis for strategic moves. When a low level decision feeds directly into a broader strategic goal, the resulting move should be clear. In other cases, the decision likely has a negligible impact on the broader picture. The lack of sufficient consequence impedes decisive action. In these situations, roll the dice.

And of course, if you’re indecisive about whether or not to roll the dice, you can tempt infinite regress and roll the dice on that decision. ;)

A decision is often better than no decision. Growth requires action. Indecision inhibits action. A useful thought experiment when faced with indecision: do you struggle more with making the decision than hypothetically dealing with any of its outcomes? If so, dice will unshackle you from the invisible chains. Given that a dice roll is a firm resolution, the dice roll guarantees a swift, uncompromising scheme to overcome indecision.

As we roll the dice to minimize indecision, we begin to realize how insignificant most decisions are. When randomness yields neutral to positive outcomes, we grow a deeper trust with the power of detachment. It’s not a senseless detachment, bred by indifference or capitulation. It’s empirically grounded by our own experience of applying selective randomness. Detachment expels unnecessary stress and preserves energy for growth-enabling activity. It helps unhinge our ego from red-herring patterns of the universe. It makes our lives more efficient. Of course, while complete attachment limits growth, complete detachment also limits growth. Prior Tenets must be considered to selectively roll the dice.

A crucial teaching of Dice Theory is to take control of reinforcement loops. Every decision carries not only the weight of its immediate outcome, but also the longer term psychological framing of our ability and approach to make decisions. A decision that yields an outcome we deem as constructive positively reinforces our decision-making ability. Compounding benefits follow, as we are more likely to make more decisions, which lead to more change and growth. The inverse is also true, and negative reinforcement can lead to exacerbated resistance to take action. Dice provides us with the ability to rapidly make decisions while mitigating potential negative reinforcement. If you roll the dice on a decision, you’re required to follow through. It is your choice to use the dice, but the decision that you actually follow through on is a dice decision, not yours. As a result, you gain the positive benefits of the new experience, but you relinquish the ego-connection to possible negative outcomes. Randomness does not dispel control. The distance that intentional suspension of choice creates between us and our decisions actually provides us with more authority to govern the nature of its reinforcement loops. Rolling the dice frequently helps stimulate these underlying loops and pivot consistently towards growth orientation.

Indecision is a great place to start rolling the dice. We can quickly build an internal trigger around the feeling of indecision as a reminder to consider dice. Our most common experiences of indecision tend to hover around our least important decisions. The stakes are lower and the benefits can still be profound. We witness the process of creating healthy detachment while building positive reinforcement loops at the meta level of decision making. As we become comfortable with rolling dice in the face of decisions that restrain us, we can begin to explore rolling dice to proactively maximize growth.

Tenet 4: Roll the dice to minimize indecision

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