The Diceman and diceliving

[nicola_red]

I'm a huge fan of the book The Dice Man by Luke Rheinhart and I'm really trying to get into diceliving although I'm just too much of a coward for it I suspect.  I'm interested to know what others thought of the book and if they've tried diceliving, and what the consenquences were.

[rutineli]

I was also a big fan and of the sequal (Much Less Good).

The best you can hope for is that the hair will not grow on your palms.

Have a good straight talk with the mirror, then gettalife

       rutineli

[nicola_red]

Okaaaaaay...

[gastwo]

Not just you, In A Pickle. I'm waiting for the answer with bated breath...

[woofgang]

http://www.lukerhinehart.net/

google "diceliving" for loads of other stuff

[nicola_red]

Sorry all.  It's just using dice to make decisions.  Sounds simple enough but it's really captivating. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested.

[nicola_red]

Ah, fair enough InA.  I'm really not sure if Rhinehart had a money-making scheme in mind when he wrote the book.  I think if you'd read it you may feel differently.  Diceliving itself doesn't make anyone any money - you wouldn't even need to spend �5.99 on the book to do it.  (My dice cost 15p each.)  I'm not saying it's a flawless theory but that's the whole point of it - you take the flaws as they come up.  It could indeed lead to all sorts of difficult situations, but that's part of the thrill - and you don't need to give yourself dangerous options when throwing if you don't want to.  I personally love the idea, hence the Q - I think it's the opposite of cynical, it's eternally optimistic to believe that the dice will take you where you should go.  But I'm interested in everyone's opinions of course!

[woofgang]

As I recall, in the book, the Diceman ends up torturing and killing someone. The point of the book's philosophy is that it is copping out not to give the dice dangerous options. I don't think that luke Rhinehart wrote the book to encourage people to do it, any more than many other authors of "thought provoking" novels do. IMHO while diceliving might make an interesting book, it is NOT a good idea for a real way of life!!

[kaktus]

i think that In a Pickle and Woofgang are absolutely right, I enjoyed the book but living like that seems a bit insane (sorry) to me. You would end up doing some horrible things either to your self or others. I mean if you leave the unpleasant choices out is it really diceliving?

[FTVS]

I loved the book but it is, after all a work of fiction, it is not really proposing an alternative lifestyle. That said. you can have great fun if you have a dice evening or a dice day. I have used it before for certain minor decisions partciularly when in a group. Eg shall we leave this nightclub queue and try another bar/club/ go home etc.

[rumanshu]

I was really disappointed with this book when I finished it, even though I enjoyed the first few chapters.  It just wasn't what I expected.

I don't reccommend anyone takes diceliving seriously, but it's useful when deciding where to go on holiday, or what to do on the weekend, etc.

[cook1254]

In "Home and Away" recently , Alf was suffering from depression and couldnt make his mind up about anything and so decided to do things by the throwing of a yes/no dice. He came to his senses when one throw meant he had to sell his share of the diner to Irene !

[Xrossbow]

I have been practicing diceliving since I was 16, I never read the book and didnt know anything about it till a few years ago (I am 32 in april).

So naturally I dont practice it exactly as its done in the book which gives me a great advantage I think because had I read the book first I probably wouldnt be practicing it nor would I have been led to the great experiences and adventures that I have been led to.

I use the die to lead me to new food, Travel and Restuarants, I use the die to decide WHEN I work on my next Goals and I use the die in my work as a writer on occasion-and sometimes in Books that I read for self improvement-for example, a book I am reading now instructs me to find a worthy social cause and join it-I would roll and ask-should I do that?

The die the way I practice it has never led me to do anything anti life or dangerous-The most radical thing it has ever said to do was to move to Las Vegas. Coming here has led to more great life experiences.

I think that if the president would use dicing the way that I use it then we would not be at war in Iraq and we would have a more peaceful world. So should he roll the die? Yeah.

Like I said though, I dont practice it the way that the book says, I didnt even know there was something called diceliving-I thought I had made it up as a way to bring about more adventure into my boring mundane life.

Check out Wikipedia's entry on Luke Rhinehart and at the bottom is a link to my homepage on dicing under Dicing 2 Eat/Travel.

I'd love to chat with anyone out there who practices dicing in sane and safe ways-doesnt let it decide their personality, etc...so feel free to send me an e-mail at [email protected]