F1nite

Dice Rolling

I have a regular 6-sided die on my table. It might not be fair (I don't remember the last time I got a 2 on it), but I consult my "fair" die whenever I need to make a decision. Should I do robotics work, or should I start a little on college? Should I keep doing homework, or play some video games? Should I get up for a walk, or read something?


Now, a 6-sided die is pretty good at helping make these kinda of decisions. You can assign a value to each side and thus choose between 2, 3, 41, 52, 6, and even 7(?!)3 outcomes. For those more advanced or who also want more nuance, you can also put "weightings" on each outcome.
Yet sometimes, I flip the die even when I know my heart pulls me in some way. For example, I know that doing homework is probably better than playing more video games, especially if I've played them for quite a while, yet I'll still roll the die hoping to get the outcome that "validates" me playing videogames. Other times, I'll roll the dice, land on some option, and realize that I wanted the other option to roll up.

So why do I roll the die? And especially why do I roll the die in times where a decision has almost already been made in my head? I mean, there are times where I disregard the die, and say that "it's unfair" or something along those lines.

I think I'm looking for some finality. Some notion that because the die rolled one way, the option it lands on is i some way related to destiny -- or at least a sign, something more than a random occurrence that is meaningless and controlled by physics rather than, well, something spiritual.
It then makes sense from this lens why I still roll the die when I've already made up my mind -- I'm looking for validation that what I'm doing is right; whether that be continuing to indulge or starting something anew.

A while ago I read that a simple coin flip helped many people through their decisions. Although the flip was "entirely random"4, and ~60% of people actually followed the flip and cited it was important, it still illustrates the solace we get from seemingly random acts of chance.


Today, I read about Piet Hein, a great guy who also wrote about this problem of making decisions. However, whereas I use the dice as the means to make the decision, Hein suggests that the dice (or coin in his case) is simply a tool that aids in your decision -- it itself does not decide, but rather the act of flipping it (or rolling the dice) will make you decide what you want to do.
Perhaps I just have to make dice rolls take longer until I settle upon my course of action.


Or, only roll the dice when you need to.


  1. Let 1, 3, 5 be 'H'. Let 2, 4, 6 be 'T'. Thus, after 2 rolls, you will either have HH, HT, TH, or TT, which can correspond to 4 different things.

  2. 1-5 are the outcomes, 6 just means reroll (until you get a non-6 number).

  3. 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 are for outcome 1; 2/1, 2/2, 2/3, 2/4, 2/5 are for outcome 2, etc. Then, 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6 are for outcome 7, and if you roll 6/6 (reverse snake eyes?) reroll. [Note: 1/2 means rolling a '1' on the first roll and a '2' on the second roll.]

  4. There have been some studies that flipping a coin is like 51% going to land on the side that it started on, but I do not really care. For the purposes of almost everyone, a coin flip is essentially random.