Domino is the term for any small, flat, rectangular block used as a gaming object. Also known as bones, pieces, or men, dominoes are most often played with one player against another and are arranged edge to edge so that adjacent faces match each other, or form some specified total, such as six to three or five to two. Most domino games involve emptying the opponent’s hand, but scoring games are also common. Some are adaptations of card games, and others were created to circumvent religious proscriptions against playing cards.

In some cases, a single domino can cause a chain reaction that changes the course of an entire life. These are the kind of domino actions Admiral William H. McRaven spoke of in his 2014 commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin: “Think of something simple that you can do, like making your bed every morning or calling a friend. These are the little things that can have a big impact in your world.”

The power of one domino falling on top of another is not only mesmerizing; it can be dangerous. As the video below shows, when a domino is dropped onto a smaller object of the same size (such as a brick), it can push that brick over, and so on. The process is called the domino effect, and it explains why you need to be careful when stacking up dominoes.

While many people use domino as a form of art, others set up domino tracks that look more like an engineering project than a game of childhood. One such artist is Lily Hevesh, who creates amazing domino art by arranging and connecting rows of tiles to form patterns such as curved lines and grids that look like pictures when they fall. Her designs can be as simple or complex as you want, but they all begin with a plan.

For Hevesh, this involves using the same process of engineering that she applies to her physical creations. She starts with a design, then calculates the number of tiles and their placement to achieve that vision. For example, to build a rainbow spiral that uses all 15 colors of the standard double-six set, she needs 28 tiles.

Domino is not just about pizza, though, and that’s a large part of the company’s strategy. When Domino’s new CEO, Steve Doyle, took over from longtime CEO David Brandon in 2004, he knew that his company needed to change its ways to keep up with competitors, and so he worked on improving technology and creating more options for customers to order their food, including texting or using devices like Amazon Echo. He also worked on revamping the brand image, focusing on its “think global, act local” motto. The result has been a turnaround that has seen the company’s revenue increase. Its stock has climbed to a record high as of late, and the company is on track to reach its goal of having 25,000 Domino’s locations around the world by 2025.