Domino’s is known for its pizza, but the company has more to offer. Domino’s also focuses on its corporate responsibility, and its employees are encouraged to volunteer with community organizations. The company also sponsors several events to help kids and teens learn about business, science, technology, math, and more.
In this week’s WONDER of the DAY, we look at the domino effect. The concept is simple, but the effects can be dramatic.
A domino is a flat, thumb-sized rectangular block of wood or another material that is divided into two parts, each bearing from one to six pips or dots; 28 such pieces make up a complete set. Each domino is distinguished from other dominoes by its identifying marks on one side and by a blank or identically patterned other side. The pips are designed to look like the numbers on a die. The domino name derives from the fact that, when placed end to end in a line, each domino will cause the next to fall. The earliest known dominoes were developed in China in the 12th or 13th century. In Europe, dominoes were introduced to the United Kingdom toward the end of the 18th century. The most common domino game uses a double-six set; it is usually played by two players. Other games use a variety of sets, and some games involve scoring or blocking by placing tiles in such a way that they total a certain amount (e.g., twelve).
Many people play dominoes for fun. Some like to create elaborate domino art, in which they arrange the pieces to form curved lines or even 3D structures such as towers and pyramids. Others enjoy playing positional games, in which they place dominoes edge to edge to form patterns. These games are often adaptations of card games and were popular in some areas to circumvent religious proscriptions against card-playing.
Other games feature skill and timing. A player who succeeds in knocking over a large number of dominoes in quick succession is said to have “dominated.”
The domino effect is a powerful metaphor for many things. Admiral William H. McRaven made this point in a commencement speech to University of Texas at Austin graduates: “Every act you take, no matter how small, has a ripple effect. What you do today will affect the world tomorrow.”
If you’re a writer, the domino concept can apply to your work as well. Each scene in a story is a domino, and it’s easy to end up with scenes that aren’t influencing the next ones in the right ways. If you’re a pantser, and you don’t use an outline tool like Scrivener to plan out your story in advance, you might find yourself with scene dominoes that don’t add enough logical impact on the scene ahead of them. The good news is that you can weed out these scene dominoes by using simple scene cards to guide your writing.