5 ms·

Being born to two educated parents is not luck on your part, but well deserved reward for a long, concerted effort on theirs. You're not a random happening on a

Being born to two educated parents is not luck on your part, but well deserved reward for a long, concerted effort on theirs. You're not a random happening on a clean slate; you're just the latest offshoot of a family.

Al-Khwarizmi 9y ago
Maybe there is a philosophical divide between us, but this argument sounds really weird to me. From his/her point of view, of course being born to educated parents is luck, if not what else is it? We don't have any choice or any influence on the matter of who we are born to, and we cannot change it with our effort or lack of it. The fact that from their parents' point of view it's not luck, because they worked for it, strikes me as irrelevant in this context. It can be relevant in a societal context but the post you reply to was talking about the success of an individual and how it can come just by luck, without that individual working especially hard for it.
- slavik81 9y ago
  What isn't luck? I only am who I am today because of a combination of nature and nurture. My genes and my environment defined who I am. I had no control over either of those things. I mean, if I was born on Steve Job's birthday, with Steve Job's genes, to Steve Job's parents, presumably I would be Steve Jobs. From that perspective, it's pure luck I'm not a billionaire. And, similarly, pure luck that I'm not literally Hitler.
  - andai 9y ago
    Do we make our own destiny, or does our destiny make us?
    - jimnotgym 9y ago
      Both, with some effort i could get good a poker. Some games I will lose no matter what because you can only play the hand you are dealt
      - mch82 9y ago
        And you can only buy in with the money you have to start with. Everyone should experience losing to a worse player who won by starting with more chips and therefore had more hands and more opportunities to recover from error. Then they should experience a fixed buy in, no rebuy tournament where each player starts with equal opportunity.
  - rayiner 9y ago
    > What isn't luck? Bingo!
    - shaftoe 9y ago
      This is fatalism and societies that adopt this attitude fall into some nasty traps. For example, there's no point to solving problems because it's the will of God.
      - rayiner 9y ago
        It's not fatalism. It's about recognizing that a more economically even society is warranted because people shouldn't get outsized credit (or be disproportionately punished) for things outside their control.
        shaftoe 9y ago
        Real life is complicated. Who decides what is in their control? What if it's a combination?
        sheepmullet 9y ago
        Society gains incredible wealth from the desire to gain outsized credit for those we care about. Economic evening can quickly become a poison.
      - verylittlemeat 9y ago
        It seems like more of a philosophy of humility than fatalism.
booleandilemma 9y ago
He's not saying his parents are lucky, he's saying that he is lucky.
eutectic 9y ago
It's both.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Bakary 9y ago
That just moves the chain of causation one link earlier.
jimnotgym 9y ago
Who says his parents were not lucky too? No offense intended to OP, but they could have been two rich dropouts who lived their lives in a squat, lapsed into drug addiction and then found one of their estranged parents had died and left them $10m. The myth that rich people are rich because they worked hard is just that, a myth. The myth that a family is rich because generations worked hard is just ignorant. Please reference the British aristocracy whose wealth is generally attributable to an ancestor being friends with William the Conqueror, as famously said by the Duke of Westminster (Richest man in Britain, recently dies and passed his estate to his son tax free) "The Duke of Westminster was acutely aware that his own vast wealth was entirely due to luck. When once asked for the secret of financial success, he replied it was to have an ancestor who had been a close friend of William the Conqueror. It may have been that his inability to know how to make amends for this fluke lay behind his discontent." https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/its-better-to-be-a-lottery-winner-than-the-duke-of-westminster/ https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/its-better-to-be-a-lotte...
- humanrebar 9y ago
  "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." You might be right, but we need to honor people for taking care of the next generation by working hard, being clever, and making good decisions. And aristocracy aside, people who were "privileged" are generally children of people who make good decisions, take care of their kids, and typically love them. To act like that is all just the roll of the dice is to diminish the hard work and sacrifice it takes to be a good parent and a productive member of society. What happens when the old men who plant trees are greeted with nihilism and apathy?
  - rainbowmverse 9y ago
    How is being born to those parents not luck? I had to learn self-control, personal finance, investment, entrepreneurship, and so on by myself because no one taught me. I learned it very, very late and it's likely set me back decades. I had to be exposed to people who knew these things, and who were willing to teach me despite my upbringing. The fact that I'm where I am with growing savings, a small but growing music business, and confidence in my gender identity and sexuality is pure luck. This all depended on my parents, despite their failings, seeing that computers were going to be a big deal. No matter how bad things got, I always had a computer and an internet connection. If not for meeting the right people at the right times (all online), I'd have ended up in a loveless marriage, an ongoing slide toward abject poverty, and confusion about who I am like everyone else around here. Now I know luck is mostly about preparation, but no one teaches you preparation around here. We're all about learned helplessness in these parts.
webnrrd2k 9y ago
Was it luck that both of the parents were able to put in long, concerted effort? (I'm not trying to say that hard work has nothing to do with anything, quite the opposite, but that "luck", as the word is commonly used, also plays a huge part in any ones life)

Al-Khwarizmi 9y ago

Maybe there is a philosophical divide between us, but this argument sounds really weird to me. From his/her point of view, of course being born to educated parents is luck, if not what else is it? We don't have any choice or any influence on the matter of who we are born to, and we cannot change it with our effort or lack of it. The fact that from their parents' point of view it's not luck, because they worked for it, strikes me as irrelevant in this context. It can be relevant in a societal context but the post you reply to was talking about the success of an individual and how it can come just by luck, without that individual working especially hard for it.

slavik81 9y ago
What isn't luck? I only am who I am today because of a combination of nature and nurture. My genes and my environment defined who I am. I had no control over either of those things. I mean, if I was born on Steve Job's birthday, with Steve Job's genes, to Steve Job's parents, presumably I would be Steve Jobs. From that perspective, it's pure luck I'm not a billionaire. And, similarly, pure luck that I'm not literally Hitler.
- andai 9y ago
  Do we make our own destiny, or does our destiny make us?
  - jimnotgym 9y ago
    Both, with some effort i could get good a poker. Some games I will lose no matter what because you can only play the hand you are dealt
    - mch82 9y ago
      And you can only buy in with the money you have to start with. Everyone should experience losing to a worse player who won by starting with more chips and therefore had more hands and more opportunities to recover from error. Then they should experience a fixed buy in, no rebuy tournament where each player starts with equal opportunity.
- rayiner 9y ago
  > What isn't luck? Bingo!
  - shaftoe 9y ago
    This is fatalism and societies that adopt this attitude fall into some nasty traps. For example, there's no point to solving problems because it's the will of God.
    - rayiner 9y ago
      It's not fatalism. It's about recognizing that a more economically even society is warranted because people shouldn't get outsized credit (or be disproportionately punished) for things outside their control.
      - shaftoe 9y ago
        Real life is complicated. Who decides what is in their control? What if it's a combination?
      - sheepmullet 9y ago
        Society gains incredible wealth from the desire to gain outsized credit for those we care about. Economic evening can quickly become a poison.
    - verylittlemeat 9y ago
      It seems like more of a philosophy of humility than fatalism.

booleandilemma 9y ago

He's not saying his parents are lucky, he's saying that he is lucky.

eutectic 9y ago

It's both.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

Bakary 9y ago

That just moves the chain of causation one link earlier.

jimnotgym 9y ago

Who says his parents were not lucky too? No offense intended to OP, but they could have been two rich dropouts who lived their lives in a squat, lapsed into drug addiction and then found one of their estranged parents had died and left them $10m. The myth that rich people are rich because they worked hard is just that, a myth. The myth that a family is rich because generations worked hard is just ignorant. Please reference the British aristocracy whose wealth is generally attributable to an ancestor being friends with William the Conqueror, as famously said by the Duke of Westminster (Richest man in Britain, recently dies and passed his estate to his son tax free) "The Duke of Westminster was acutely aware that his own vast wealth was entirely due to luck. When once asked for the secret of financial success, he replied it was to have an ancestor who had been a close friend of William the Conqueror. It may have been that his inability to know how to make amends for this fluke lay behind his discontent." https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/its-better-to-be-a-lottery-winner-than-the-duke-of-westminster/ https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/its-better-to-be-a-lotte...

humanrebar 9y ago
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." You might be right, but we need to honor people for taking care of the next generation by working hard, being clever, and making good decisions. And aristocracy aside, people who were "privileged" are generally children of people who make good decisions, take care of their kids, and typically love them. To act like that is all just the roll of the dice is to diminish the hard work and sacrifice it takes to be a good parent and a productive member of society. What happens when the old men who plant trees are greeted with nihilism and apathy?
- rainbowmverse 9y ago
  How is being born to those parents not luck? I had to learn self-control, personal finance, investment, entrepreneurship, and so on by myself because no one taught me. I learned it very, very late and it's likely set me back decades. I had to be exposed to people who knew these things, and who were willing to teach me despite my upbringing. The fact that I'm where I am with growing savings, a small but growing music business, and confidence in my gender identity and sexuality is pure luck. This all depended on my parents, despite their failings, seeing that computers were going to be a big deal. No matter how bad things got, I always had a computer and an internet connection. If not for meeting the right people at the right times (all online), I'd have ended up in a loveless marriage, an ongoing slide toward abject poverty, and confusion about who I am like everyone else around here. Now I know luck is mostly about preparation, but no one teaches you preparation around here. We're all about learned helplessness in these parts.

webnrrd2k 9y ago

Was it luck that both of the parents were able to put in long, concerted effort? (I'm not trying to say that hard work has nothing to do with anything, quite the opposite, but that "luck", as the word is commonly used, also plays a huge part in any ones life)