On Shuffling Poker Chips and Perfection

Last updated: December 9, 2024

I love shuffling poker chips at my desk.

It helps me think. It helps me focus. It calms me.

I probably shuffle poker chips 100 times each day.

Did you know it takes 6 perfect shuffles to get your chips back in the original order?

The best way to check is to take 2 piles of different color chips and shuffle them.

Do it perfectly 6 times, and they are neatly organized by color once again.

Shuffling 100x a day means that 16 times per day, I get my chips back in the right order.

But that’s not the case.

It happens maybe 4 times a day unless I’m really focusing.

Sometimes a chip sticks and doesn’t shuffle. Sometimes, I don’t make even stacks of chips.

Sometimes I completely mess up and the chips fall.

Perfection is uncommon. It doesn’t happen every time.

It doesn’t even happen most of the time.

I get perfect shuffles not because I’m the best chip-shuffler.

It’s because I take a lot of shots.

If I were only striving for perfect, I would have given up the first time I tried to shuffle chips.

When you’re creating your podcast, strive for doing. Not for perfect.

Perfection is uncommon. But the more you do something, the more likely it is to happen.