================

“Everything we care about lies somewhere in the middle, where pattern and randomness interlace.”

—-

James Gleick

==================

“… so I walked up to him and said  ‘gosh, this is the most random day of my life’ and he said (without hesitation) …. “Everyday should be totally random.”

Stephan Jenkins – lead singer for Third Eye Blind)

==========

Randomness is one of those topics that makes people feel uncomfortable. It feels chaotic. It doesn’t feel safe. It absolutely implies unpredictable.

If that’s the case, well, how about that one quote thought:

 

 

‘everyday should be totally random’

 

THAT would drive some people insane. All the people who build lists for each day, have a standard routine they follow, have each minute mapped out and a plan to decide what has to be done every day just to be sure they accomplish what needs to be done each day. While many people would suggest this is driven by a desire for efficiency I believe (with no research proof) that this kind of behavior is driven by a desire for some routine in life. All the anal-scheduling & planning puts some order to fend off what can often be a pretty chaotic life when Life is left to its own devices. Look. The truth is that the majority of people like some order.  Everyone likes some routine in their Life. It provides some comfort.  It (psychologically) permits people to have some expectations met every day (which provides a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction).

Unfortunately the side affect of that (similar to any drug to make a comparison) is falling into a “routine.” I put it in quotes because it shifts from comfortable things which permit you to transition in time with thoughtless effort to, well, ‘a rut.’

Am I suggesting routines are bad? Nope. But I am suggesting routines are addictive because they provide comfort. Unfortunately, being comfortable all the time is not good (yeah.  I actually typed that).

I thought about this as I helped a business by talking about having people exploring stepping out of the routine. Strategically we attacked the whole idea that every day life gets planned and listed and filled up by things to do that every day becomes, well, everyday. The routine. And finding that routine makes you efficient and you get shit done and on occasion you get to do some shit you want to do.

Was the routine we were discussing comfortable in this case? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I am not sure. I don’t think so.  I think routine in this case was simply efficiency driven.  Is this type of routine any better than a comfortable one? Nope. Not really.

While that strategic one we were discussing is more of a survival rut it is still a rut.

Anyway. Back to the point of this post.

What does all this routine talk have to do with the quotes I shared?

Lack of any randomness. Ok. Let’s say it lacks any significant randomness to increase the heart rate (positively or negatively) nor does it even come close to any type of randomness which drives up stress level to nuclear levels because it disrupts the routine and gets things out of whack (note: there is some benefit to you when it happens, well, infrequently randomly .

While I may seem to be espousing the positives of randomness, do I really and truly believe that every day should be random? Of course not. That was said by a musician who probably hasn’t seen a schedule beyond a song list he has to follow each night on stage. And total randomness is actually chaos. I cannot really see how anyone can be happy in a 100% chaos driven life. Some structure is good.

Anyway. I do believe ‘routine’ is addictive in a numbing way.  It is stealthy.  And evilly sneaky. I imagine I am suggesting it is worth doing some self reflection on your Life and living with routine in life versus some newness of some randomness (and yet avoiding total chaos).

A couple of closing thoughts (because this has been a truly unfocused random post).

For business.

If you can seek to offer some positive randomness to a consumer that helps them break out of the routine, if but for a minute, you will be appreciated. Help them seek out the surprise. Don’t break the routine just give them a break from the routine. You will never go wrong.

For life.

Recognize there is a difference between good randomness and bad randomness.  I sometimes think people stop discerning the difference and therefore solely seek to avoid any randomness. Living life through avoidance is never good (that is a postulate I believe). Maybe just seek to avoid bad randomness.

That’s it.

Should every day be totally random? Nope. Frankly that is silly. And slightly naïve.

Should every day have a moment of randomness that pleasantly surprises you or makes you smile? Boy. We could only hope.

I will say one thing about randomness. Random is an awful lot like chaos. What I mean by that is it often looks like an unstructured, unpredictable mess. I would argue if you were to look back you would note it really was just a part of a pattern you didn’t recognize at the time.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Written by Bruce