Dominoes are small, flat blocks that can be used in a variety of games. In a domino game, they are played against each other; the winner is the player who has knocked down all of their dominoes.
The Domino Effect: A Personal Strategy
When a single domino falls, energy is generated. Some of this energy converts into kinetic energy, the type of energy that moves things.
That energy is then sent to the next domino and can be used to push it over. When a domino is knocked over, it causes a chain reaction in which all the other dominoes are pushed to their own tipping points.
The chain continues until the last domino falls and the game is over. This process is called the domino effect, a term that originated from an American journalist named Joseph Alsop and has been applied to many business situations.
One of the most powerful examples of the domino effect is the way it helped Charles Schwab, founder of Bethlehem Steel, to prioritize his work. He used the domino effect to focus on the most important tasks that would have the greatest impact on the company.
Ivy Lee, Schwab’s executive coach, taught him this simple technique. By prioritizing his work based on the domino effect, Schwab’s company grew from a small steel mill to the largest independent steel producer in the world.
Hevesh uses a similar mental model to create her mind-blowing domino installations. She starts by thinking about the purpose or theme of her creation and brainstorming images or words she may want to include in it.
Once the concept is finalized, Hevesh starts to lay out her dominoes on a flat surface. Then she flicks her first domino and watches as it falls, one after the other.
She calls the process of creating a domino setup “engineering.” It’s a step-by-step approach she uses to design her masterpieces.
In a domino game, the ends of each domino must match and show a number that is useful to the players or distasteful to the opponents. For example, if the tiles have blank faces, they can only be matched with other dominoes that also have blank faces or with blank-faced dominoes that have been “stitched up,” meaning a different number is showing on each end of the chain.
The resulting chain of dominoes gradually grows longer and longer as each tile is played. The longer the chain, the more points are awarded to the player who lays down each tile.
During the game, each player must take turns in laying down tiles onto the table. Then, they must position the tiles so that each of the tiles touches a different end of the domino chain.
Eventually, the chain will reach the point where each domino can no longer be matched to any other tile, and if the chain is completely unbroken, it will be the winner of the game. It is a very difficult game to play, and often the players will become frustrated or even angry with each other.