4 ms·

The "luck" of Zuckerberg seems to imply it was a random event he was at Harvard and that he didn't intend to be there. That story is about the meaning of being

The "luck" of Zuckerberg seems to imply it was a random event he was at Harvard and that he didn't intend to be there. That story is about the meaning of being at a place like Harvard, you have the tools and people around you to see and take advantage of opportunities before others. The conflict behind the story is whether your suffering is the result of something random or meaningful. Someone who does the best they can at a lesser university and gets lesser results is not a result of randomness, but the meaning (or properties, qualities) of being at a lesser university and the choices made beforehand. Attributing randomness to big successes undermines the hard work that a lot of people go through to get one step up the chain.

OnlineGladiator 7y ago
> Attributing randomness to big successes undermines the hard work that a lot of people go through to get one step up the chain. This is my entire argument. There's a much easier way to phrase it though: life's not fair.
- Joe-Z 7y ago
  To me "life's not fair" reads as a contradiction to the cited statement. As I understand it GP's argument was that, yes it may have been luck to meet the right people at the right time, but that a lot of conscious decision and discipline went into being in the right position at the right time beforehand. Reading it that way, life is fair, since it rewarded the work previously put into building up a life's success. Another way to say it would be: If facebook hadn't made Zuckerberg a billionaire, something else would have made him at least a huge success (the stellar kinds of successes that people like Zuckerberg experience are probably still insanely unlikely even in the world of billionaires)
- friendlybus 7y ago
  I don't mean to guarantee success in the face of randomness, but rather to understand and highlight the meaning of making a good decision at the right time, regardless of the fortune or misfortune of luck.
- friendlybus 7y ago
  Life is fair if you value fairness. In some places it's more important than freedom. Life's not being fair is a US value. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SPe_VpvqUxM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SPe_VpvqUxM
- foogazi 7y ago
  >life’s not fair “...and the you die” Not my quote, heard it from a colleague
  - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
    The full saying: Life's a bitch and then you die. So fuck the world and go get high.
Retric 7y ago
Luck put him there at the right time. Someone with his abilities in 1930’s Harvard would have had few paths to that kind of wealth. Further, the path to Harvard if he had been born in say India’s slums is rather tricky especially when compared to having wealthy US parents.
- friendlybus 7y ago
  Yes I agree he didn't choose his parents, but he chose to go to Harvard and work hard and take peoples data and ect ect. Each step of the way he could have turned back, or made the film Born Rich like other people with the extreme luck of being born into a good position in life and get cut out of the family empire. Or go and start a religious cult with millions/billions of dollars. I've seen enough people mess it up from all positions in life that I commend the good choices people make (apart from Zuckerberg's hot button issues) to achieve a life worth living well. That has a meaning to it, and going through suffering to get there.
- sfttty 7y ago
  Bit he was born in the US and not in India. Why? It's tempting to dismiss this question, but let's think about it. If we look at this from biological pov, he was created from a bunch of DNAs in the US and thus "Zuck" is just a convenient way to refer to a bunch of atoms. The entire process in this case is nearly deterministic and there is no room for luck. When we throw an apple seed into earth and see an apple tree 5 years later, we don't call it luck, right? There was a reason why we were there at that time and there is a reason why only an apple tree can grow from an apple seed. Luck is really just our inability to see the reason.
  - Retric 7y ago
    Quantum mechanics and thus physics does not seem to be an entirely deterministic process. Starting say when modern humans showed up to now the current world is almost entirely dependent upon chance and thus luck. Note strange attractors do exist, so cities would be likely to form around rivers rather than atop mountains. That however says nothing about the people or cultures that would live there.

OnlineGladiator 7y ago

> Attributing randomness to big successes undermines the hard work that a lot of people go through to get one step up the chain. This is my entire argument. There's a much easier way to phrase it though: life's not fair.

Joe-Z 7y ago
To me "life's not fair" reads as a contradiction to the cited statement. As I understand it GP's argument was that, yes it may have been luck to meet the right people at the right time, but that a lot of conscious decision and discipline went into being in the right position at the right time beforehand. Reading it that way, life is fair, since it rewarded the work previously put into building up a life's success. Another way to say it would be: If facebook hadn't made Zuckerberg a billionaire, something else would have made him at least a huge success (the stellar kinds of successes that people like Zuckerberg experience are probably still insanely unlikely even in the world of billionaires)
friendlybus 7y ago
I don't mean to guarantee success in the face of randomness, but rather to understand and highlight the meaning of making a good decision at the right time, regardless of the fortune or misfortune of luck.
friendlybus 7y ago
Life is fair if you value fairness. In some places it's more important than freedom. Life's not being fair is a US value. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SPe_VpvqUxM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SPe_VpvqUxM
foogazi 7y ago
>life’s not fair “...and the you die” Not my quote, heard it from a colleague
- OnlineGladiator 7y ago
  The full saying: Life's a bitch and then you die. So fuck the world and go get high.

Retric 7y ago

Luck put him there at the right time. Someone with his abilities in 1930’s Harvard would have had few paths to that kind of wealth. Further, the path to Harvard if he had been born in say India’s slums is rather tricky especially when compared to having wealthy US parents.

friendlybus 7y ago
Yes I agree he didn't choose his parents, but he chose to go to Harvard and work hard and take peoples data and ect ect. Each step of the way he could have turned back, or made the film Born Rich like other people with the extreme luck of being born into a good position in life and get cut out of the family empire. Or go and start a religious cult with millions/billions of dollars. I've seen enough people mess it up from all positions in life that I commend the good choices people make (apart from Zuckerberg's hot button issues) to achieve a life worth living well. That has a meaning to it, and going through suffering to get there.
sfttty 7y ago
Bit he was born in the US and not in India. Why? It's tempting to dismiss this question, but let's think about it. If we look at this from biological pov, he was created from a bunch of DNAs in the US and thus "Zuck" is just a convenient way to refer to a bunch of atoms. The entire process in this case is nearly deterministic and there is no room for luck. When we throw an apple seed into earth and see an apple tree 5 years later, we don't call it luck, right? There was a reason why we were there at that time and there is a reason why only an apple tree can grow from an apple seed. Luck is really just our inability to see the reason.
- Retric 7y ago
  Quantum mechanics and thus physics does not seem to be an entirely deterministic process. Starting say when modern humans showed up to now the current world is almost entirely dependent upon chance and thus luck. Note strange attractors do exist, so cities would be likely to form around rivers rather than atop mountains. That however says nothing about the people or cultures that would live there.