5 ms·

Luck >>>> hard work. But hard work helps you get a bigger dividend out of luck.

xupybd 5y ago
Gotta be in it to win it. Often hard work is how you get in a place for good luck to pay off.
dimgl 5y ago
Not sure I agree. A lot of my successes have been not only because of hard work but because I made good choices. Life is mostly about making your own luck.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  Well for my career, it definitely was luck. I got a programming internship in midwest, in a non-tech city...right when covid started. And it paid pretty well too. No amount of "oh you just worked hard" will convince me I got that. I'm 100% sure it was not only luck, but the fact that also I was the only one who applied because they mislabeled the position in a major city like 150 miles away haha.
hytdstd 5y ago
I think this is a little defeatist. You definitely won't get lucky if you aren't in the room-- hard work involves putting in the time in the room for that chance.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Hard work also means developing in advance the skills you'll need to take advantage when luck blows your way. For example, if you have no coding skills, nobody is going to invite you to join their software startup.
newbie789 5y ago
I agree. I worked hard as a waiter, hard as an Uber driver, hard as a construction worker. Then I got incredibly lucky (repeatedly) and now I make pretty decent money doing a job in which I decidedly do not work hard at all. I spent a lot of time reading (easy), some time developing social skills (somewhat difficult but not work), then got an opportunity (the exact opposite of hard) and it worked out. I agree that there’s no substitute for hard work. It’s its own thing. I disagree that it has some sort of inherent moral value or virtue, as far as I can tell that’s a line invented by management to make you feel better about not receiving a tiny fraction of the money you generate for your company.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > not receiving a tiny fraction of the money you generate for your company I recommend starting your own business, where you get to keep 100% of the profit.
  - newbie789 5y ago
    That’s what I’ve done, after lots of good luck!
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      I bet you're working harder and longer at your own business than you ever did as a waiter.
      - newbie789 5y ago
        I literally do not. That was my point. Edit: To clarify, seriously no I do not “work hard.” Running my business is so, so much easier than building a deck or carrying sliding glass doors on my back 4+ stories. I got lucky in that I found myself in a situation where I fell ass-backwards into a bunch of clients wanting something that I can do easily (general IT and website stuff) that I learned as a kid (stuff I learned while also not doing hard work.) I am literally just lucky.
MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Life isn't just a dice roll for everything you do. You have an ability to influence it and can let the bad rolls get to you or not. Being able to make the best out of a bad situation is just as valuable as taking all the right paths.
dougmwne 5y ago
And a great strategy can make luck reproducable. Luck at scale becomes probability.

Gotta be in it to win it. Often hard work is how you get in a place for good luck to pay off.

Not sure I agree. A lot of my successes have been not only because of hard work but because I made good choices. Life is mostly about making your own luck.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
Well for my career, it definitely was luck. I got a programming internship in midwest, in a non-tech city...right when covid started. And it paid pretty well too. No amount of "oh you just worked hard" will convince me I got that. I'm 100% sure it was not only luck, but the fact that also I was the only one who applied because they mislabeled the position in a major city like 150 miles away haha.

hytdstd 5y ago

I think this is a little defeatist. You definitely won't get lucky if you aren't in the room-- hard work involves putting in the time in the room for that chance.

WalterBright 5y ago
Hard work also means developing in advance the skills you'll need to take advantage when luck blows your way. For example, if you have no coding skills, nobody is going to invite you to join their software startup.

newbie789 5y ago

I agree. I worked hard as a waiter, hard as an Uber driver, hard as a construction worker. Then I got incredibly lucky (repeatedly) and now I make pretty decent money doing a job in which I decidedly do not work hard at all. I spent a lot of time reading (easy), some time developing social skills (somewhat difficult but not work), then got an opportunity (the exact opposite of hard) and it worked out. I agree that there’s no substitute for hard work. It’s its own thing. I disagree that it has some sort of inherent moral value or virtue, as far as I can tell that’s a line invented by management to make you feel better about not receiving a tiny fraction of the money you generate for your company.

WalterBright 5y ago
> not receiving a tiny fraction of the money you generate for your company I recommend starting your own business, where you get to keep 100% of the profit.
- newbie789 5y ago
  That’s what I’ve done, after lots of good luck!
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I bet you're working harder and longer at your own business than you ever did as a waiter.
    - newbie789 5y ago
      I literally do not. That was my point. Edit: To clarify, seriously no I do not “work hard.” Running my business is so, so much easier than building a deck or carrying sliding glass doors on my back 4+ stories. I got lucky in that I found myself in a situation where I fell ass-backwards into a bunch of clients wanting something that I can do easily (general IT and website stuff) that I learned as a kid (stuff I learned while also not doing hard work.) I am literally just lucky.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Life isn't just a dice roll for everything you do. You have an ability to influence it and can let the bad rolls get to you or not. Being able to make the best out of a bad situation is just as valuable as taking all the right paths.

dougmwne 5y ago

And a great strategy can make luck reproducable. Luck at scale becomes probability.