

Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003) - bgray
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html

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lqdshadow
So boiled down to its fundamentals, lucky people are really those who open
more doors to opportunities, notice the opportunities, and then take advantage
of the opportunities. By increasing the possibilities, the probability rises
that you will find good opportunities. To increase your ability to recognize
opportunities rather than doubt and ignore them, you must be willing to fail
many times in order to succeed the really good times. This is where the
optimism and self-confidence come into play.

We see this same philosophy preached in other threads here with regard to
successful businesses.

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dangoldin
Reminded me of the quote by Seneca: "Luck is what happens when preparation
meets opportunity"

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RiderOfGiraffes
You should add a "2003" to the title - I was wondering why it looked familiar.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=878039>

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Sukotto
Strange that the HN duplicate-checker missed this one. The urls look the same
to me.

otoh, I found it an interesting read and missed it the first time around so
I'm glad it made it to the front page today.

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btilly
The duplicate checker only checks for duplicates in the last x months (3
IIRC). I believe that this is deliberately so that "oldie but goody" posts can
be reposted.

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F_J_H
"Chance favours the prepared mind." (Can't remember who said it, but it is the
crux of this article in many ways.)

~~~
carbocation
"Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits
préparés." \- Pasteur

(Various versions of this are available in English at
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur> )

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MrHyde
My best literal-ish interpretation "In the fields of observation (testing?)
chance favors only the prepared spirits." It's interesting to me the explicit
"only" construction, as opposed to the implied version in the typical English
versions.

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gmartres
I'm not a native English speaker, but isn't "minds" more appropriate than
"spirits"?

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MrHyde
I'm not a native French speaker. It's quite possible that minds would be
better here. I don't really know; I think the distinction can frequently be
subtle, at least in my conception of the two. Depending on the situation, I
might consider either to be a strict subset of the other, which means I'm
sometimes equivocating.

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iBercovich
Luck is essentially a common interpretation of the stochastic nature of the
world. I agree with the author of the article in that people could increase
their luck by exposing themselves to random events. I disagree that counting
all pictures rather than stopping when the note is found implies a "lucky"
personality-- that is more like a rational/logical personality. Luck would be
that in fact, the number of pictures was different than the number in the
note, and the person's curiosity helped them discover this fact by continuing
to count regardless of having seen the note.

I tried to describe this in one of my blog posts, but I am still missing the
second part, if interested, take a look at: <http://bit.ly/b0SjZq>

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jstevens85
I don't think the author was implying that stopping when the note is found
implies a "lucky" personality. I think Dr. Wiseman was looking for personality
traits that are common amongst "unlucky" people. The newspaper test
demonstrated that unlucky people are more tense and anxious than normal, and
this could explain why they may not spot new opportunities.

~~~
iBercovich
I agree. But does this actually follow the definition of lucky? A person could
deem herself lucky without that actually being the case-- it might just be
that she has personality traits that make her successful. Luck, by definition
is not dependent of one's actions. I guess the article is saying that we can
make ourselves feel lucky by working on certain personality traits-- but does
that make us actually lucky? I am just being philosophical here.

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heyitsnick
"unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on
looking for something else."

Or, those who are too focused looking for something else generally consider
themselves to be unlucky.

Self-reporting on if you are "lucky" or not is a reflection on the
positiveness, motivation and optimism of the person. Not if you are actually
"lucky" or not.

This study for me draws conclusions about people's outlook on their lives and
how it effects their ability to concentrate on given tasks. Involving 'luck'
in this is just for the headlines.

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philk
Self reporting that you are lucky is probably positively correlated with
optimism.

Optimism has a whole host of benefits that probably account for the "luck"
that these individuals are enjoying.

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sophacles
I would hope so -- lucky is a magic property. Luck itself may be chance, but
lucky is nonsense.

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ellyagg
The description of the unlucky person sounds more like me than the the lucky
description. I try to avoid using intuition as much as possible and I always
make the rational choice as best as I can judge it. Yet, I feel neither lucky
nor unlucky.

Partly, of course, that's because I don't believe in a person being "lucky".
And, to the extent that concept is meaningful, I've always believed in "making
your own luck", which I seem to do just fine.

You don't need to be a superstitious person to gain all the benefits of
"luck".

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albertsun
Take the poll. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1129321>

I think it'd be interesting to see whether HNers consider themselves lucky or
unlucky overall. I have a guess, but don't want to reveal it for fear of
prejudicing the answers.

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marilyn
I like the end of the article where the author offer _three easy techniques
that can help to maximize good fortune_ which can be boiled down to:

1\. Trust your intuition 2\. Seek variety to invite chance and new
opportunities 3\. Look to the positive side of your situation

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argv_empty
I don't see a case they describe where luck as a factor has been isolated.

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sophacles
Luck doesn't exist. It is essentially a magic enchantment that provides its
recipient with an ability to gain a positive outcome of chance events at a
frequency above those provided by normal probability. Sure, there are some
people who will 'beat the odds' on a regular basis, probability provides for
this, however more people report being lucky than the probability suggests as
well. Further, luck has a social connotation roughly equivelent to fortunate,
but when the term lucky is used there is a nod to vague supernatural forces
controlling outcomes, a la the Fates.

As such luck really cannot be isolated as a factor. Instead tho, people who
claim to be lucky can easily be isolated. They can be studied for what makes
them "lucky". In this case it seems to be at least somewhat correlated with
openness to unexpected outcomes.

~~~
thalur
I'm not sure I quite agree with that. As I see it, the term "luck" is
regularly applied to two categories of events. As you've said, there are the
chance events (such as winning the lottery or rolling a 6 on a die), and in
that I quite agree with you.

The other case, which is what I thought the article was about, is more of an
"opportunity" type of luck. For example, if you happened to find a £10 note
while walking home. That would be called "lucky" but it is not simply the
result of chance: it is the result of you being more observant than everyone
who didn't notice the money before you. And in that sense, people can easily
be "luckier" than others, as the article describes.

~~~
sophacles
Good point. In fact, I suspect we are saying the same thing, but lack some
common language/terminology.

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jimfl
You don't have to learn to be lucky; billions of years of evolution have bred
lucky right into you.

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emarcotte
Teela Brown? So lucky that she got to go see and save the Ringworld as her
first and last mission.

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watmough
Actually 'unlucky' if I remember correctly.

The 'lucky' ones were unreachable.

Didn't Teela end up as the protector?

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lief79
Based on the first book, lucky is probably right. She needed the experience of
danger in order to broaden her horizons and to grow as a person.

Clearly, I haven't read enough of the series to comment on the last statement
.... and they could easily alter the perception of the events in the first
book.

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ThomPete
Lucky beats smart!

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psycandrew
Amen!

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wpgblizzard
"Luck favours the prepared." Edna Mode - The Incredibles - 2004

