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Debating the actual importance of luck seems a lot less important than developing the proper attitude towards luck. Pretending luck doesn't exist can lead to a

Debating the actual importance of luck seems a lot less important than developing the proper attitude towards luck. Pretending luck doesn't exist can lead to arrogance and a lack of empty for people who haven't succeeded. On the other hand, believing that luck controls everything can lead to fatalism. It might seem best to find a happy medium, but being wishy washy about this whole thing just gives you opportunities to blame your own failure on circumstances outside your control, while continuing to take credit for success. In the general case, looking for balance between opposing ideologies makes no guarantee that you'll walk away with the best parts of both instead of the worst. In practice, it's probably best to drop the determinism/indeterminism dichotomy completely and just focus directly on the desired end attitudes. On a side note, the reason American society is obsessed with meritocracy has nothing to do with a belief about the nature of luck. Denying luck as the path to success is just a way to make people work harder.

CaptSpify 10y ago
> lack of empty I believe you mean "lack of empathy"
jasonkostempski 10y ago
A few days ago my kid asked me if I believe in luck. It was obvious he was thinking of it as some sort of force or an attribute a person/object has or something equally magical. I think a lot of people get stuck on that meaning. We already have "fortunate" as a word to describe what I think "luck" should mean and since "luck" more easily invokes the magical sense of the word in people I try to avoid it.
mindcrime 10y ago
There is no such thing as "luck" really. It's just a word we made up to use in post-hoc analyses in order to justify certain interpretations.
thebspatrol 10y ago
Another commenter used the phrase "luck surface area", which I think plays well into the concept that everything is hinged on an element of luck, where harder workers and people with better birthright generally have larger "surface area".
- fnl 10y ago
  While I agree that you can increase you "luck surface area" (e.g., by taking more chances), that doesn't mean it will help. It implies you also are increasing you "unlucky surface area", so if you "somehow" attract (?) more good/bad luck, you might as well just end up being far more miserable than if you had not. In other words, I don't believe luck to be a variable, it seems much more of a constant that you've been born with.
  - thebspatrol 10y ago
    Yes, but what is "bad luck"? For most people "luck" really means "how wide have I spread my net" -- how many people are willing to give me opportunities? When we say "luck surface area" I don't think we mean legitimate zero-sum odds, because we're only talking about luck idiomatically. You don't have much to lose by putting yourself first in line for as many opportunities as possible.
marknutter 10y ago
I think you need to view luck the same way you view misfortune: it's random, and there's nobody to thank/blame for it. That way, you're not spending your time feeling like you need to grovel at somebody's feet because something went your way, nor do you need to spend your time punishing someone for the bad things that happen to you in your life. In other words, you don't sweat it and instead focus on the parts of your life that you do have control over (which is more than most people think).

CaptSpify 10y ago

> lack of empty I believe you mean "lack of empathy"

jasonkostempski 10y ago

A few days ago my kid asked me if I believe in luck. It was obvious he was thinking of it as some sort of force or an attribute a person/object has or something equally magical. I think a lot of people get stuck on that meaning. We already have "fortunate" as a word to describe what I think "luck" should mean and since "luck" more easily invokes the magical sense of the word in people I try to avoid it.

mindcrime 10y ago

There is no such thing as "luck" really. It's just a word we made up to use in post-hoc analyses in order to justify certain interpretations.

thebspatrol 10y ago

Another commenter used the phrase "luck surface area", which I think plays well into the concept that everything is hinged on an element of luck, where harder workers and people with better birthright generally have larger "surface area".

fnl 10y ago
While I agree that you can increase you "luck surface area" (e.g., by taking more chances), that doesn't mean it will help. It implies you also are increasing you "unlucky surface area", so if you "somehow" attract (?) more good/bad luck, you might as well just end up being far more miserable than if you had not. In other words, I don't believe luck to be a variable, it seems much more of a constant that you've been born with.
- thebspatrol 10y ago
  Yes, but what is "bad luck"? For most people "luck" really means "how wide have I spread my net" -- how many people are willing to give me opportunities? When we say "luck surface area" I don't think we mean legitimate zero-sum odds, because we're only talking about luck idiomatically. You don't have much to lose by putting yourself first in line for as many opportunities as possible.

marknutter 10y ago

I think you need to view luck the same way you view misfortune: it's random, and there's nobody to thank/blame for it. That way, you're not spending your time feeling like you need to grovel at somebody's feet because something went your way, nor do you need to spend your time punishing someone for the bad things that happen to you in your life. In other words, you don't sweat it and instead focus on the parts of your life that you do have control over (which is more than most people think).