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Luck is what outsiders label reasons that you get ahead and they don't. The reason a door opened for you and not for them. The reason that you're successful and

Luck is what outsiders label reasons that you get ahead and they don't. The reason a door opened for you and not for them. The reason that you're successful and they're not. What they fail to see is that it wasn't lucky at all. It may have been luck that that particular door opened when it did, but realistically, from the inside, it was leveraging the best opportunity available at the time. If that door hadn't opened, you'd have taken another route to your objective. There is little luck involved. The only lucky thing I suppose is the probability of taking the route you did. When you climb a mountain your goal is the summit. The climber who decides "Ah shit, I couldn't do it because there was bad weather, you were so lucky that you hit the mountain when you did and had that window to summit." There was no luck involved... you would've summited anyway, you'd have just taken a different route or persevered longer to get there. That's the difference between those who make it and those who say "If only I'd had their luck." I guess you could say it took some luck for Edison to make the light bulb... but I daresay if you'd suggested such a thing to Edison, he'd have taken your head off. But that's the difference between seeing failure and seeing the thousands of incremental changes that led from something that wasn't satisfactory, to something that provides lights for the entire world...

askafriend 11y ago
Let's take a step back then, as a mental exercise. Was it not luck that you and I were born at all?
- balabaster 11y ago
  Let's step back even further... While it may be luck that life as we know it has ended where it has (so far), you could look at it like life will always find a way, we have no idea what the endgame is, but life marches forward by hook or by crook. However it does that is immaterial, it mutates in order to keep moving forward. So is it really luck? Or is it like water flowing to the sea, inevitable?
scintill76 11y ago
First off, was Edison born with a passion for inventing? It's easy to retroactively name a great achievement, but it doesn't mean that anyone who decides they really, really, really want to do X can do it. If you believe in a universal inherent potential for greatness, you might believe anyone can be great/successful/famous/devoted at something, but they don't necessarily get to choose what that is. Edison may have been lucky to get free training as a telegraph operator in return for saving a three-year-old from being hit by a runaway train[0] (stranger than fiction!) He was lucky not to die then, an unremarkable boy (see fictional[1].) He was lucky to arrive on the scene of ~70 years of experimentation on the general idea of a filament in an enclosure[2]. He was lucky that a chemist overseas invented a pump which became a "key tool" to his bulb[3]. He's lucky to have lived in a time when he could hear about innovations on another continent and not have to pay too much (anything?) in patent royalties. He's lucky that somebody else didn't beat him to the punch and use the pump in the 14 years between its discovery and Edison's use, given that carbon filaments had already been tried but failed due to air in the bulb. He's lucky that a judge ruled in his favor instead of Sawyer's[2]. I realize I am mostly critiquing just one possible form of just one invention of Edison's, but it's perhaps his most famous achievement since you alluded to it (he's lucky that pop history has chosen to remember him.) And, I don't find it plausible if you were to respond "He definitely would have still found another way" if the conveniences above were removed. There is only room for so many opportunities, ideas, coincidences, that can happen in one person's life. A favorable alignment of those to produce a notable outcome is "luck." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#Telegrapher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#Telegrapher [1] fictional http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/preww1/young_hero_dies_saving_child.htm http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/preww1/young_hero_di... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Histor... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprengel_pump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprengel_pump
- balabaster 11y ago
  Take a step back and look at this for a second... Edison stuck at it long enough that he said "I didn't fail, I found 999 ways not to make a light bulb before I found 1 that worked"... that is very telling about the man's character. Those who use the "he had luck on his side" argument undervalue not only his ingenuity, but his dedication to achieving his objective. Perhaps he wasn't born with a passion for inventing - perhaps he was just born with a passion for doing stuff until the goal is reached. Either way, luck had nothing to do with it. His perseverance and passion for finishing the job got him to his goal. What was luck was for the rest of us - we got a light bulb out of the deal. Imagine if he'd had a passion for pottery. We'd have the most amazing dishes right now, but we'd only be able to see them by candlelight...
jack9 11y ago
It's lucky that I wasn't born as an aboriginee. Babe Ruth didn't have to compete against black players or get drug tested, ad nauseum. The whole "you make your own luck" is as wishful thinking as any other hokey religion.
- balabaster 11y ago
  It's lucky that you were born with such a sense of knowing your place in the world and not striving to be more than society lets you be... It must be a great source of comfort. There are many many examples of people who have done what society said couldn't be done because of who they are, what race they are, what sex they are, what circumstances they are shackled by... by many accounts the honey bee shouldn't be able to fly. Imagine where you could be if you said "Fuck that, I'll define my own destiny thanks."
  - studentrob 11y ago
    > Imagine where you could be if you said "Fuck that, I'll define my own destiny thanks." Sometimes you'd be better off. Sometimes you'd be dead. Is society better off because of a person who stood up for his or her beliefs and paid a price for that? I'd say yes. Is that person better off for it? Debatable.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
austinjp 11y ago
Luck and self-delusion don't preclude the existence of each other. I may have said "this dog has 4 legs" but I certainly didn't say "everything with 4 legs is a dog". The climber who declares "I couldn't do it because there was bad weather" and doesn't persist: are they lucky to be alive to try again later? Or are they a deluded shirker expressing sour-grapes at someone else's success? These are not mutually exclusive. Equally, they could both be false. I don't deny determination and incremental (or paradigmatic) progress. Luck (or chance) is a factor that the successful (and their worshippers) seem only to eager to dismiss.

askafriend 11y ago

Let's take a step back then, as a mental exercise. Was it not luck that you and I were born at all?

balabaster 11y ago
Let's step back even further... While it may be luck that life as we know it has ended where it has (so far), you could look at it like life will always find a way, we have no idea what the endgame is, but life marches forward by hook or by crook. However it does that is immaterial, it mutates in order to keep moving forward. So is it really luck? Or is it like water flowing to the sea, inevitable?

scintill76 11y ago

First off, was Edison born with a passion for inventing? It's easy to retroactively name a great achievement, but it doesn't mean that anyone who decides they really, really, really want to do X can do it. If you believe in a universal inherent potential for greatness, you might believe anyone can be great/successful/famous/devoted at something, but they don't necessarily get to choose what that is. Edison may have been lucky to get free training as a telegraph operator in return for saving a three-year-old from being hit by a runaway train[0] (stranger than fiction!) He was lucky not to die then, an unremarkable boy (see fictional[1].) He was lucky to arrive on the scene of ~70 years of experimentation on the general idea of a filament in an enclosure[2]. He was lucky that a chemist overseas invented a pump which became a "key tool" to his bulb[3]. He's lucky to have lived in a time when he could hear about innovations on another continent and not have to pay too much (anything?) in patent royalties. He's lucky that somebody else didn't beat him to the punch and use the pump in the 14 years between its discovery and Edison's use, given that carbon filaments had already been tried but failed due to air in the bulb. He's lucky that a judge ruled in his favor instead of Sawyer's[2]. I realize I am mostly critiquing just one possible form of just one invention of Edison's, but it's perhaps his most famous achievement since you alluded to it (he's lucky that pop history has chosen to remember him.) And, I don't find it plausible if you were to respond "He definitely would have still found another way" if the conveniences above were removed. There is only room for so many opportunities, ideas, coincidences, that can happen in one person's life. A favorable alignment of those to produce a notable outcome is "luck." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#Telegrapher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#Telegrapher [1] fictional http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/preww1/young_hero_dies_saving_child.htm http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/preww1/young_hero_di... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Histor... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprengel_pump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprengel_pump

balabaster 11y ago
Take a step back and look at this for a second... Edison stuck at it long enough that he said "I didn't fail, I found 999 ways not to make a light bulb before I found 1 that worked"... that is very telling about the man's character. Those who use the "he had luck on his side" argument undervalue not only his ingenuity, but his dedication to achieving his objective. Perhaps he wasn't born with a passion for inventing - perhaps he was just born with a passion for doing stuff until the goal is reached. Either way, luck had nothing to do with it. His perseverance and passion for finishing the job got him to his goal. What was luck was for the rest of us - we got a light bulb out of the deal. Imagine if he'd had a passion for pottery. We'd have the most amazing dishes right now, but we'd only be able to see them by candlelight...

jack9 11y ago

It's lucky that I wasn't born as an aboriginee. Babe Ruth didn't have to compete against black players or get drug tested, ad nauseum. The whole "you make your own luck" is as wishful thinking as any other hokey religion.

balabaster 11y ago
It's lucky that you were born with such a sense of knowing your place in the world and not striving to be more than society lets you be... It must be a great source of comfort. There are many many examples of people who have done what society said couldn't be done because of who they are, what race they are, what sex they are, what circumstances they are shackled by... by many accounts the honey bee shouldn't be able to fly. Imagine where you could be if you said "Fuck that, I'll define my own destiny thanks."
- studentrob 11y ago
  > Imagine where you could be if you said "Fuck that, I'll define my own destiny thanks." Sometimes you'd be better off. Sometimes you'd be dead. Is society better off because of a person who stood up for his or her beliefs and paid a price for that? I'd say yes. Is that person better off for it? Debatable.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

austinjp 11y ago

Luck and self-delusion don't preclude the existence of each other. I may have said "this dog has 4 legs" but I certainly didn't say "everything with 4 legs is a dog". The climber who declares "I couldn't do it because there was bad weather" and doesn't persist: are they lucky to be alive to try again later? Or are they a deluded shirker expressing sour-grapes at someone else's success? These are not mutually exclusive. Equally, they could both be false. I don't deny determination and incremental (or paradigmatic) progress. Luck (or chance) is a factor that the successful (and their worshippers) seem only to eager to dismiss.