>>> luck I believe we should define 'luck' in this context. Luck is when you write once a year and it happens to get on the front page of HN (or large subredd

>>> luck I believe we should define 'luck' in this context. Luck is when you write once a year and it happens to get on the front page of HN (or large subreddit, etc) and it attracts the critical mass of customers. In this case, it's like flipping a coin (just the odds are not 50/50). Voting on HN is far from deterministic and it's often the case that a link gets no traction on the first couple of submissions and then gets on the frontpage the third time it's submitted. So, yes, quite a bit of luck is involved. In case of priceonomics, they are writing good content consistently so it's hardly luck anymore. If you have 20% (or any other probability) to make the front page and do it often enough, eventually it will happen. And if you keep doing that, people will recognize your domain and more people will click on the link, etc. While chance is still involved, it's quite far from the typical definition of 'luck'.