As I have well established through this blog, I am a world-class procrastinator. Despite the best intentions to use this as a means to practice my "writing", I have been lucky to average a single post a month. Mainly because important tasks like sleeping, reading someone else's incredibly insightful blog, or determining that House's latest patient doesn't have lupus always gets in the way. Most recently though, my diversion of choice (no, choice is the wrong word - it is more like unconscious compunction) is electronic solitaire. It is quick, always accessible challenge that calls out to me the moment my attention wains from the task at hand. Often I use it as an incentive to drive me through unpleasant tasks - if a finish this section, I can play a quick hand. But all to often it turns into a bad case of Civilization - One more turn Syndrome. Compulsively clicking through to the next deal in hopes that that one will bring me the proper alignment of cards to take the day. And when I do win, that just fuels the fire to try again. It is the same compunction that gives the success of the minimally rewarding games like Farmville and Angry Birds. Success in it doesn't prove any particular skill or ability. It is just a time waster that eats at your day while every so often patting you on the head and telling you that you are a good boy.
But at the same time, I have begun to think there must be a strategy to this. A way of playing that increases your odds of winning. That if you play closer attention to the order of the cards as they are revealed in sets of three, you can make more intelligent decisions on which cards to play. Actively passing up options to move cards from the deck in order to get a more favorable card later. Choosing to move the card that frees up the space for the king instead of the card from the biggest unturned column of cards. There is in fact skill and strategy to solitaire and once I figure it out, I can increase my rate of winning. It isn't just luck. Why aren't their competitive solitaire tournaments out there to allow the true kings of solitaire shine? There has to be, right? This card game is no more luck based than poker.
So with that in mind and with the hope that I can turn my procrastination technique into a driver for posting on the blog, I will start today to track my rate of success in solitaire. If I am right. If there is any skill what so ever, I should get better with time (unless of course my prior work in this area has already delivered me at my peak solitaire playing ability). Who knows, maybe I will become the greatest solitaire player of all time.
Day 1 - 1 win out of 10 hands
Day 2 - 1 win out of 10 hands
Day 3 - 0 wins out of 11 hands (the first shutout and the low point of the monitoring so far)
Be sure to check back often to see how a progress on this thrilling adventure.
This blog poster is sponsored by Better Lawn Service and Pool Cleaning.
No comments:
Post a Comment