What is Dominoes?
Dominoes are a set of rectangular tiles with dots or pips on their ends, arranged in a single grid. These are similar to dice or playing cards in that a variety of games can be played using them.
They are also referred to as men, stones or bones and can be made out of various materials including wood, bone or plastic. The game of dominoes is an ancient one, dating back to China and Europe. It has many variations but most involve laying tiles end-to-end and scoring points by matching the dots on each tile to their exposed ends.
In the United States, dominoes are often used as a table game. It can be played by two or more people.
A player may place a domino horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The first tile placed may be a double or a numbered tile with no other tile connected to it. A second tile is then played to the left or right of the first tile. The open ends of this new tile are 5 and 6.
Some rules allow a double to be placed cross-ways in the layout, so that it straddles the long side of the first tile. However, this usually limits the number of additional tiles that can be placed in any single turn. In some games, such as Concentration, the long sides of a double are treated as being open for play, allowing multiple tiles to be placed across them.
The domino effect, or falling domino theory, is a concept that describes the way that one small action can trigger other similar actions and lead to a cascade of events. It was first used in the context of Cold War politics, but today it applies to any situation where one small action starts a series of events that leads to an overall change.
For example, during a Cold War press conference in 1953, President Eisenhower was asked about the possibility of communism spreading from one country to another. He responded by citing a theory known as the domino effect, which described how a single event could cause other events to happen that would eventually lead to a revolution or political change.
He went on to say that if this were to happen in Southeast Asia, it would be disastrous for the U.S., and the only way to stop it was to increase the commitment of resources to South Vietnam and the non-communist forces fighting there.
This strategy helped Eisenhower stay ahead of the Soviet Union and eventually led to the collapse of Communism in the United States and around the world. It was an effective tool for the president during a time when other leaders were hesitant to commit large amounts of money in the name of peace.
A similar strategy has helped entrepreneurs and companies make their businesses grow. Lee Ledbetter, an executive coach who was once a CEO at Bethlehem Steel, used the same “chain reaction” strategy in his book, The Power of Focus: A Simple Formula for Becoming Extraordinary in Your Work and in Life. He explained that every day, he would pick the most important task and give it his full attention until it was completed. This gave him a huge amount of momentum to move the company forward. He was able to complete over 100 tasks each day, and his company, Bethlehem Steel, became the largest independent producer of steel in the world.