Where this was said
Playing Against the World's Best: Mochi in New York
At 6:21 · chapter starts 1:50
In January, the US Backgammon Federation's New York Metropolitan Backgammon Open drew more than 400 players to Jersey City, including Masayuki Mochizuki — 'Mochi' — a professional player from Japan who is widely considered the world's best. Mochi busted out in the first round (a reminder that even the greatest players are subject to dice variance), and Dubner found him playing money games in a side room. Dubner invited Mochi to play at his apartment, insisting on paying — Mochi joked that $500 would last about three minutes. In the match, the game swung wildly between the two players before Mochi ultimately won all three sets, though Dubner held his own in a way he freely admits he never could on a basketball court. Mochi offered a concise philosophy between moves: backgammon doesn't reward the plan you started with, only the best response to what the dice give you. Life, he said, is the same — outcomes are probabilistic, and the only rational response to a good decision gone wrong is confidence, not regret.
Making the right decision doesn't guarantee a win in backgammon. Mochi argues that this is exactly why the game mirrors life: you should never regret a good decision just because it led to a bad outcome. Confidence in the process, not the result, is the key.
