Anybody can be anybody

[MrNiceGuy]

I'd be surprised if no-one has heard of this but I've not seen anything about it in this forum yet, so I thought I'd post, it could be useful to some people.

"Anybody can be anybody" is a quote from a book called "The Dice Man" written by Luke Rhinehart, the ISBN is 0-586-03765-9 and I'd advise everyone to read it if they havent allready. Its probably my favourite book ever.

Its a piece of fiction but It basically descibes a new way of living your life, you dont need to take the ideas anywhere near as far as the character in the book does (and I'd hope no-one ever does) but used in moderation and certain situations I believe the ideas are very useful.

Basically instead of consciously making decisions about things yourself, you let chance decide what to do, ie. you decide what to do by rolling dice. This still leaves you with more power than you'd think, you get to assign what you will do for each number and you also get to choose the probabilities for each activity.
The process works like this

1. get some dice
2. assign an action or activity to each number of the dice, you can assign the same action to more than one number if you want, and you can assign inaction to a number if you want
3. roll the dice, then you MUST do whatever it is you assigned to the number that has come up, I cant stress this enough, you HAVE to do it
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   By absolving responsibility from yourself to the dice it becomes alot easier to try and do things you wouldn't have had the balls to before. An example way to use it for the apprentice DJ is, if you see a girl you want to approach but are afraid to, you mentally say "if the die comes up 1, I make an approach and try and get her number, otherwise I do nothing", then you roll the die, 5/6 times you wont have to do anything, so you feel easy about using the die, but every now and then a 1 shows up, and you must FORCE yourself to go talk to her. Before you know it you've done it and you might have a number, plus you'll probably feel more comfortable about doing it again. Its weird but you also feel less rejection, its feels more like the girl was rejecting the dice (even tho she didnt know about them) than rejecting you, so you dont feel so bad.
   
   Can't decide what to say? assign a different line to each number of the dice and decide with another roll, this way you stop agonising over what to do, or what will work.
   As you start to get a feel of what works and what doesnt you can assign higher probabilities to techniques and lines you think will work and a lower probability to a risky but potentially very profitable option, (eg. give high probability to approach the mediocre girl who is checking you out, and a slightly lower probability to approach the really hot chick that you're slightly nervous to talk to. Or, for opening lines give high probability to just saying "Hi, I'm Tom" and lower probability to a slightly more likely to offend, but perhaps more succesful C+F line you've thought up)
   
   you can also let the dice decide how to act and so on, really the possibilities are endless and you'll get alot more ideas if you read the book, you just need to remember to always OBEY THE DICE.
   
   I find using the dice works best, if both you and a friend go out and use them, that way if either of you is reluctant to obey the decision of the die, your friend is there to force you to do it, and you him etc.
   
   I think I've covered the basic ideas of diceliving and how it could be applied to DJing, but theres loads more, if you've any comments post, and I'll do my best to respond, better still try and read the book, even if you dont like the ideas, its still a bloody good read.

 

[Mack Of All Trades]

interesting....

 

[aznbreakerjrey]

This could work with some, but it is flawed in the way that if you're not confident enough to approach a girl on your own willpower, what makes you think that a die will be able to do so?

It is best for one to progress when one is ready for it. Eg. One doesn't give a beginner martial artist 10 cement blocks to break. First he must learn the basics. Same thing here. If he's not willing to get out and do some real world macking then all the tips or gimmicks we can give him will not help him.

Sounds like a good book though, I might check it out when I have time.

 

[happy gilmore]

This is like two faces from batman. Always flipping the coin.

 

[MrNiceGuy]

Originally posted by aznbreakerjrey
This could work with some, but it is flawed in the way that if you're not confident enough to approach a girl on your own willpower, what makes you think that a die will be able to do so?

Its true, you do need a degree of willpower in order to progress with the die, and untill you get the hang of forcing yourself to do whatever it decides you're best of choosing options for it that you're not too uncomfortable with.

One of the golden rules is NEVER to assign an option to the die that you would be unable to perform, when you assign an option you need to remember that you should be willing to do it if it comes up, so you never assign anything thats miles out of your comfort zone, only something thats a little way out.

I find it particlarly useful for stopping indecision and ignoring the AFC that still exists within me. For example, quite a while ago in a club I spotted a girl on her own, watching the dancefloor, I couldnt see what she looked like and she couldnt have seen me because she was watching the dancefloor, now the DJ in me was saying "go talk to her, shes on her own, this is a perfect opportunity" whereas the AFC was shouting "shes not even seen you, she probably wont want to talk anyway, or she'll be really boring, what makes you think she'd want to talk to you? whats the point?"
Now were in not for the die the AFC in me would have won and I'd have quickly found an excuse not to approach "i need another drink" or "i need a p*ss" etc. but I gave a 1/3 chance to going up to her, I'd avoid the anguish of having to make the decision myself and let chance decide whether it was to be or not. This time the die rolled in the DJs favour, once I saw the 2 in my hand I just thought "f*ck it! here we go then" and made my approach, In the end I got a good convo, but no #. But at least I tried.
The next time I found myself agonising over whether to approach someone I gave the DJ slightly higher odds, gradually, as I feel comfortable, I'm giving that side of me more of an opportunity to come through. I dont use the dice all the time, just when I'm having trouble deciding what to do, or doing something I dont feel completely comfortable with.

Yes, you do need some balls to use this technique, but somehow removig the responsibility for the decision from yourself and allowing 'fate' to decide (by the way I think destiny and fate is a load of b*llsh*t) makes the decision that much easier to carry out, you stop worrying about the consequences and you just do it.

It'd be interesting to hear from anyone else who has read the book, has anyone else been using the dice to help with DJing?