Surprises

There's a phrase I casually throw around from time to time: surprise maximization, coined as a form of pursuit-orientation.

Let's paint the picture. In a trip for instance, given the choice between a path that leads to an absolute certainty of an excellent meal, versus an unknown path that would lead to a meal that no one has ever tried before, a surprise-maximezer will choose the latter. He knows he might not like the outcome, but the prospect of being surprised by it is itself the reward.

Disclaimer first: in reality nothing should be maximized. Maximizing surprises to the extreme means total indifference to any outcome, even maximal suffering. Very Buddhist, but not keeping it real.

Chronic gambling is a prime example of chasing surprises in outcome at any price. To a gambler the outcome of a bet is less consequential than the hit of surprise during the reveal. In fact the larger the bet the more intense the feeling.

In practice, maximizing surprises is a luxury one affords when the going is good, there's ample comfort in life, that you're rich enough to be bored.

聽天由命

This is a Cantonese term that a person says after a bad beat. It literally means "listen to god, accept what fate brings."

The core of the spirit here is about a surrender to fate. Because that's typically the only option left when all effort is exhausted. In the face of a bad outcome, hanging on to the sense of agency amounts to continuing to carry the burden of responsibility in the face of hopelessness. Why bother, just roll the dice.

That's what the spirit of 聽天由命 express. I shall offer a different spin on that.

Control

The core of maximizing surprises is about letting go of control, to let fate and destiny do the driving, see how the universe can surprise you.

In doing so it's literally 聽天由命.

But to have the luxury of letting go of control implies you possess control to begin with.

Therefore having the opportunity to maximize surprise is an act of agency.

In the tragic case, a person lets fate to the driving like a kid lets a kidnapper do the driving.

For the maximizer, he lets fate to the driving like a customer having a chauffer. He is riding fate, not the other way round.

The young

To the mind of a protection-less kid, everything is a surprise but many of them can be a threat. There is little to do but to react.

Yet [赤子之心] (heart of a child) is seen as a sought after virtue.

I think that's not because it's asking us to be childish and ignorant, but points to the ability to be continually surprised and fascinated as a superior quality.

The old

Old men accept fate more easily than the young, partly life has run its course, options are exhausted. But also because control is tiring.

Plus, genuine surprise is hard to come by.

I wonder what a complete surprise-deficit would do to a 500-year-old man. He'll be quite likely suicidal.

This whole deal kinda explains why I play with 易經. In some cases I'm delegating informed decisions to fate. In cases where I can just wing it, I save energy making decisions, sit back and enjoy the surprises.