A surprise is just a map of where you weren’t looking.

Being caught off guard says less about the world being unpredictable than about the shape of your attention. Something was visible to somebody. It simply was not in the direction you were facing. Each surprise marks the edge of what you were tracking, which makes it useful information as well as an unpleasant one.

After the next thing that blindsides you, resist the urge to call it random. Ask who saw it coming and what they were watching that you were not. Over time those answers gather into a picture of your blind spots, and that map can only be drawn from surprises.