My fiancee recently asked me why random things happen in life. For example, someone winning a lottery. The best answer I could come up with was that it is divine preordainment; we’re both religious. However, I’ve been thinking about a more mathematical approach to view life, and its randomness. In a nutshell, I view life as a set of random variables. This post is banter, so please take it as such.
Let’s view life as a set of discrete, and continuous random variables; . These infinite variables could represent multiple things. For example, median income, level of education, IQ, EQ, Haleema, etc. Any given person’s life is a collection of a subset of values of these variables. We could represent my life as . Let us now define a random process which can alter the set of values within ; values can be added, removed, or updated. As an example, the value of median income can be changed by .
We can now introduce a continuous variable (goal) which takes on values between and , inclusive. This is a measure of how close one is to achieving what they want in life. This can either be affected by a single random variable from , or it can be a composite score derived from multiple variables. Someone may view their life as the outcome of a single variable, or as a composite score derived from multiple variables. Everyone has a baseline value of that makes them feel fulfilled and happy; the more carefree may be okay with a lower value, where as the more careful may want a higher value. This is similar to risk tolerance when making financial decisions. There is the target value of which one would like to achieve; this means they’ve achieved their goal in life.
We’ll introduce one final variable (ability), and that is, as you may have guessed, a measure of person’s abilities. This takes on values between and , inclusive. It is a measure of a person’s ability to alter the value of given any random subset of variables. For example, a person with high value of may be able to maintain the baseline value of , or be able to move it towards the target value regardless of the values of the subset of .
This is the lens with which I view the world, and I hope you had a good time reading this post.