Get away with as much as you can


“Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable…”

-Matilda

Before I begin, please note that I am not advocating for crime, theft, homicide, etc. There can be moral integrity coupled with street-smart savvy.

After much filibustering, at last I conceded to learning pickleball from my dad. I see how much enjoyment it has brought him in his retirement, and I agreed to accompany him on his current athletic venture.

There are two rules in the sport of pickleball which separate it from other ball sports.

  1. No volleying (i.e. “spiking” the ball) is allowed in the area in front of the service line.
  2. Return of service (second shot) must first bounce before hit.

Now, this may sound like some stodgy rules that only activate occasionally. But the reality is that these two postulates influence the entire meta of the game, heightened exponentially as you play against better and better players.

While in other ball sports serving may be an advantage, this is not the case for pickleball. Not only can the service side not intercept the returning volley (see 1), but they are forced to stand in the back of the court anticipating a long, high lob.

I’ve witnessed this pattern repeat in many kinds of games. A niche is found and exploited until it either A) becomes patched and the rules change or B) it becomes fundamental to the core strategy of the game.

And I think this is why education never served me in adult life. Instead of following rules, I would be much more successful if I figured out how to squeeze the most benefit out of the limitations given. What if we are playing with three decks, 2 red and 1 blue, and I can look at the color on the back of the cards to determine a better probability for myself? What if I can split my pair of Kings into two high value single turns that win me in the endgame? Learning how to see value in rearranging the data I am given is always challenging for me, but it feels like a muscle I am flexing and training all the time.

Add in human nature to the mix and it becomes infinitely complicated…. A good player in the game of life is not only a logical wizard but a crazy imaginative. That’s how I gamed my way out of the many hospitalizations, I would argue. Medical staff simply didn’t want to deal with me. I started having seizures due to a certain powerful sedation; I often had to fight the all-too-easy feeling of losing consciousness; staff members would make lewd and unprofessional comments*. Things happened there that, if you were not there, you simply wouldn’t believe.

*I am not innocent either.

I’m not a snitch and I would never seek legal counsel. So I let things happen. Leaning into the darkness… I am learning to see what I can get away with, too.