Tic Tac Toe (or Noughts and Crosses)

Some R Code and Some Armchair Philosophy

In a world bombarded with messages of how to live a better, happier, more purposeful, meaningful and fulfilling life, I made a choice this week to code a tic tac toe function in R.

Did it make my life better? No.

Did it make me happier? No.

Was there a purpose? No.

Was it meaningful? No.

Was it fulfilling? Yes!

Why was it fulfilling but not any of the rest? Because it feels that way to me. Maybe this is the difference between humans and machines. I make a decision and then try to justify with logic. Machines proceed only with logic.

Maybe this is that reason that discipline is tough and why our laws are so complicated. Because that’s when people try to convince themselves with logic of doing something that they don’t really want to do. Maybe there is a reason for having so many seemingly synonymous terms after all.

All those purpose-driven life books and how-to lists for being more productive or leading more meaningful lives that are dominating my news feeds… aren’t they just another excuse to procrastinate? Another form of feeding the addiction to a technological society. Grasping for knowledge bits to try to feel like we are making progress. Pointless and redundant.

So I programmed a tic tac toe function. And here it is.