Tableau

My great-grandfather played a lot of solitaire. He dealt the cards so much that the card faces were worn. I love games that are a mix of strategy and luck. I easily get bored with games that are pure luck.

I have a solitaire app on my phone, which makes it much easier to play. Solitaire is tricky because it is possible for a game to be unwinnable or to lose a winnable game. My app lets me choose the percentage of winnable games. I have mine set to 75%, but my win percentage is only 65%. This means I lose games that I could have won. The app has special events where every hand is winnable. In these events, my win rate goes to 100%.

When I don’t know if I can win or not, I lose more often than I should. Simply knowing there is definitely a solution significantly shifts my win percentage.

In 1863, a guy named William ran a mile in two seconds over four minutes. The official records note that this mile was run downhill. This remained the fastest mile run for 80 years. In May 1954, Roger beat the record by 2.5 seconds. He was the first person ever to run a sub-four-minute mile. The next month, another person beat Roger’s time. No one had run a mile in under four seconds. Once it was achieved, almost 2,000 people have accomplished this feat.

I’m not saying winning a “winnable” hand in solitaire is the same difficulty as the four-minute mile. It also isn’t easy. I have to remember where I am making decisions along the way. Sometimes I need to backtrack to that fork in the road and make a different choice. Sometimes I have to get creative and rearrange things in the tableau to uncover a hidden opportunity.

I’ve seen YouTube’s effect on people’s ability to learn, grow, and advance all kinds of skills. For instance, the record for solving a Rubik’s Cube is 2.76 seconds. It seems that once we see someone do it, we realize it is possible. The successful ones might get there first, but that doesn’t mean they are the only ones who can.

What could I accomplish if I knew it was possible? Am I being held back by something real or something imagined? Is this doable, or did I quit too soon?

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.