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I was lucky that my childhood interests gave me a basic skill set that aligned with an opportunity that I got through no effort of my own aside from coincidenta

I was lucky that my childhood interests gave me a basic skill set that aligned with an opportunity that I got through no effort of my own aside from coincidentally making friends with some very helpful people entirely on accident. I also got lucky with personal issues like addiction support and housing. There’s literally nothing about me that’s special, least of which my work ethic. I’m very happy about where I’m at in life but I have no illusions about how I got here. I wasn’t born remotely wealthy and didn’t have all the advantages that many others have but I did not get to where I am through “hard work.” I got lucky. I have friends that are smarter than me, harder workers, more creative, more entrepreneurial, better communicator, etc that have had a worse professional experience than I have. I literally just met the right people at the right time. The only contribution that I can seriously point to that I did objectively was just being a nice person at the right time in the right room, without knowing what was going on.

WalterBright 5y ago
There's a system to being lucky. It's building your talent stack, and putting yourself in situations where luck can find you. > I was lucky that my childhood interests gave me a basic skill set Normal childhood interests can lead to lucrative careers, if one decides to follow those interests. These days, that's only a google search away.
- newbie789 5y ago
  There is no system to being lucky. I’ve always found it odd when people say things like that because I’ve personally experienced luck strictly as “completely unpredictable outcomes that are either favorable or not.” You don’t make luck. Luck happens to you.
  - AstralStorm 5y ago
    "Making luck" trope is used by people to justify their self-importance to themselves. There are a few things that make it more likely to be able to take advantage of an opportunity, but those are available to a huge number of others who are not as lucky. And there's no guarantee that what you're doing will prepare you for the opportunity at any given time. Suppose next 20 years 2/3 middle managers will get replaced by AGI. They may have been lucky before but it does not hold. Combine with people who lost a lot of resources by investing. There is an old adage about not investing what you cannot afford to lose, they thought you could not lose that job, but it happened anyway. Nobody likes to hear about hundreds of thousands of losers every day, who will be then unable to follow up on opportunities. Unlike games of skill, life is much more of a game of chance with a lot predetermined from outset. It's closer to a deck builder but sometimes you just get trash picks.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      > And there's no guarantee that what you're doing will prepare you for the opportunity at any given time. Nobody said anything about a guarantee. It's all about making choices so luck can find you.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    > There is no system to being lucky. Do you really believe that you're just as lucky to find opportunity by staying home and playing video games vs getting educated and visiting trade shows, etc.? Do you really believe that you're just as likely to get lucky with investments by never investing in anything, vs doing some research and doing investing?
    - newbie789 5y ago
      Yes. That is in fact how my view of luck works. It is not created or earned, it’s literally just the outcome of random uncontrollable factors, sometimes favorable (“I found a dollar!”) or unfavorable (“Oh no, I misplaced a dollar!”) I’m highly educated in several fields that have exactly 0 overlap with my business, so reading all that Kierkegaard and Pharmako/Poeia over the years didn’t serve to make me any “luckier” when it comes to my professional life. If I hadn’t been “staying home and playing video games,” I would have never met my partner. That’s luck. If I hadn’t been doing nothing in the middle of what should have been a workday for most people, I wouldn’t have been available to do a friend a favor that turned into a job that turned into a business. That’s luck. I’m not advocating for everyone to just do nothing — many people find that excruciating. I’m just saying that good luck and bad luck can happen to anyone at any time in any way. I personally find it just downright odd when human beings decide that they’ve somehow gamed the RNG in life rather than just uh… getting lucky. For example, by my estimation “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne is not representative of reality. People cannot actually manifest things, however nice it must be to feel that one can. There’s a whole lot of randomness in the universe and I’m not in the habit of thinking that I have conquered it.

WalterBright 5y ago

There's a system to being lucky. It's building your talent stack, and putting yourself in situations where luck can find you. > I was lucky that my childhood interests gave me a basic skill set Normal childhood interests can lead to lucrative careers, if one decides to follow those interests. These days, that's only a google search away.

newbie789 5y ago
There is no system to being lucky. I’ve always found it odd when people say things like that because I’ve personally experienced luck strictly as “completely unpredictable outcomes that are either favorable or not.” You don’t make luck. Luck happens to you.
- AstralStorm 5y ago
  "Making luck" trope is used by people to justify their self-importance to themselves. There are a few things that make it more likely to be able to take advantage of an opportunity, but those are available to a huge number of others who are not as lucky. And there's no guarantee that what you're doing will prepare you for the opportunity at any given time. Suppose next 20 years 2/3 middle managers will get replaced by AGI. They may have been lucky before but it does not hold. Combine with people who lost a lot of resources by investing. There is an old adage about not investing what you cannot afford to lose, they thought you could not lose that job, but it happened anyway. Nobody likes to hear about hundreds of thousands of losers every day, who will be then unable to follow up on opportunities. Unlike games of skill, life is much more of a game of chance with a lot predetermined from outset. It's closer to a deck builder but sometimes you just get trash picks.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    > And there's no guarantee that what you're doing will prepare you for the opportunity at any given time. Nobody said anything about a guarantee. It's all about making choices so luck can find you.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > There is no system to being lucky. Do you really believe that you're just as lucky to find opportunity by staying home and playing video games vs getting educated and visiting trade shows, etc.? Do you really believe that you're just as likely to get lucky with investments by never investing in anything, vs doing some research and doing investing?
  - newbie789 5y ago
    Yes. That is in fact how my view of luck works. It is not created or earned, it’s literally just the outcome of random uncontrollable factors, sometimes favorable (“I found a dollar!”) or unfavorable (“Oh no, I misplaced a dollar!”) I’m highly educated in several fields that have exactly 0 overlap with my business, so reading all that Kierkegaard and Pharmako/Poeia over the years didn’t serve to make me any “luckier” when it comes to my professional life. If I hadn’t been “staying home and playing video games,” I would have never met my partner. That’s luck. If I hadn’t been doing nothing in the middle of what should have been a workday for most people, I wouldn’t have been available to do a friend a favor that turned into a job that turned into a business. That’s luck. I’m not advocating for everyone to just do nothing — many people find that excruciating. I’m just saying that good luck and bad luck can happen to anyone at any time in any way. I personally find it just downright odd when human beings decide that they’ve somehow gamed the RNG in life rather than just uh… getting lucky. For example, by my estimation “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne is not representative of reality. People cannot actually manifest things, however nice it must be to feel that one can. There’s a whole lot of randomness in the universe and I’m not in the habit of thinking that I have conquered it.