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The problem with "luck not skill" people is that they are defining all the elements of skill as a matter of luck. Bill Gates made Windows which was used by mil

The problem with "luck not skill" people is that they are defining all the elements of skill as a matter of luck. Bill Gates made Windows which was used by millions of people all over the world, well he got lucky because he was born at the right place in the right time (a point made by Malcolm Gladwell). Elon Musk/Thiel made billions, well they happen to be at the right place at the right time with Paypal. Once you make billions, then making more billions is super easy, that's not luck, but a function of wealth. Cope - That's the only explanation for people attributing the success of other people as luck. If it's luck then you're not a failure, just unlucky, but if it's skill then you have to be responsible for your actions and failure.

quickthrower2 6y ago
I don't think there are two camps "luck not skill" and "skill not luck". Most smart people realise it takes both. To become Bill Gates level of success you need luck. You could argue that middle class to millionaire path could be described as mostly skill and focus, with the luck of not getting wiped out by a disease, jail, lack of motivation or whatever.
nickik 6y ago
> Elon Musk/Thiel made billions, well they happen to be at the right place at the right time with Paypal. Once you make billions, then making more billions is super easy, that's not luck, but a function of wealth. If anybody thinks building a Space and a Car company is 'easy' is just delusional. Space in particular has messed up many billionair investors.
Traster 6y ago
The reason to attribute these successes to luck is its fundamental to a lot of industries and particularly to software that success is self-fulfilling. It's not luck that a company became the dominant operating system company in the 90s - it was inevitable, economies of scale and the advantages of a software ecosystem built on top of one common operating system are enormous. It was luck that that operating system happened to be MS DOS/Windows and not one of the dozens of other basically interchangeable operating systems - hell, a different CP/M clone would've ended up on the IBM PC. You can say it's some sort of coping mechanism, but actually I believe that most of my own success is luck. I would say I'm successful, I'm good at what I do and I'm rewarded very well for it. Skill and hard work are a prerequisite of my success but the success itself is largely down to luck. Skill and hard work are table stakes. To put the equally uncharitable interpretation of your view of the world: The fact is that most success is significantly down to luck, but people don't like that because everyone wants to be the hero in their own story rather than just someone who got lucky.

quickthrower2 6y ago

I don't think there are two camps "luck not skill" and "skill not luck". Most smart people realise it takes both. To become Bill Gates level of success you need luck. You could argue that middle class to millionaire path could be described as mostly skill and focus, with the luck of not getting wiped out by a disease, jail, lack of motivation or whatever.

nickik 6y ago

> Elon Musk/Thiel made billions, well they happen to be at the right place at the right time with Paypal. Once you make billions, then making more billions is super easy, that's not luck, but a function of wealth. If anybody thinks building a Space and a Car company is 'easy' is just delusional. Space in particular has messed up many billionair investors.

Traster 6y ago

The reason to attribute these successes to luck is its fundamental to a lot of industries and particularly to software that success is self-fulfilling. It's not luck that a company became the dominant operating system company in the 90s - it was inevitable, economies of scale and the advantages of a software ecosystem built on top of one common operating system are enormous. It was luck that that operating system happened to be MS DOS/Windows and not one of the dozens of other basically interchangeable operating systems - hell, a different CP/M clone would've ended up on the IBM PC. You can say it's some sort of coping mechanism, but actually I believe that most of my own success is luck. I would say I'm successful, I'm good at what I do and I'm rewarded very well for it. Skill and hard work are a prerequisite of my success but the success itself is largely down to luck. Skill and hard work are table stakes. To put the equally uncharitable interpretation of your view of the world: The fact is that most success is significantly down to luck, but people don't like that because everyone wants to be the hero in their own story rather than just someone who got lucky.