Random parts of a puzzle in money terms

In mario brothers there’s a level where you have to get a small mushroom and beat the boos to get to the secret level. What’s annoying about it is that even though the puzzle behind the level is pretty easy (drag the spring from a couple scenes back to the block, jump, and then wall jump so you can walk over the top of the level) being able to get the small mushroom is still based on chance, and man I’m not good at it. Hence the elements of the puzzle are deterministic I can solve easily with a few lives, but the chance part really messes up my chances of proceeding.

So often when we see inequality in a society it’s a argued that intelligence preceeds wealth, but most real world puzzles unfortunately aren’t steady regular bets on which you can build a life, like Mario Brother’s eternally switching blocks, the key to any puzzle is often the result of luck. Now let’s assume that life only has so many puzzles with chance based elements in it, that you only have to climb two buildings, double smash a couple boxes, running jump a couple casams, and then figure out the timing of 3 blocks and their interlocking patterns to reach the random box with the key to the next level. Now, if life only had a few of these puzzles then we’d see quite clearly that intelligence or some other prodigitic ability is the main factor in why some people are more sucessfull than others and such is the case in regular determined games such as sports or chess etc, but if life consists entirely of puzzles mixed with chance such as these, then intelligence doesn’t matter becuase regardless of how hard and amazing the path you took to a goal is, the other person could get their faster just by luck. That income inequality isn’t related to intelligence suggests that such is the case. That while you might be able to do incredible things with your limited options and environment, it’s utilimately hitting the right box at the right time that determines your tax braket.

technorati tags:games, various_pseudo_intellectual_rants_involving_nintendo_properties, mario_brothers, luck