

Winning the inverted lottery - Loy
http://loy22.blogspot.com/2010/07/it-really-only-happens-to-others-true.html

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joejohnson
Every day we win the inverted lottery. We just don't notice them all the time.
There are an infinite number of ways to die at any given moment, and an
infinite number of moments in any finite amount. So, living successfully
through a finite period of time is effectively winning the inverted lottery an
innumerable number of times.

This happens to us all daily. However, we tend to remember the times where,
like in this story, the nearly-avoided death is more obvious.

~~~
yason
This is my conclusion, too.

Accidents are almost always something very silly, stupid, and something that
could just happen to anyone. It only takes a single rock in a slightly wrong
position, then your ankle will slip and you fall directly against a lamp post,
hit your head, and you're dead.

It is interesting that people don't so much wonder "why did it not happen to
me?"—until something happens, and it is then when they're much into wondering
"why did it happen to me?".

Basically you need a breath a few times a minute and getting one is largely
out of your own hands. And the countless possibilities to get involved in
accidents just makes it very easy to build trust in the universe, if you think
about it. Nervous about your startup? You'll be just fine, because there are
countless of "smaller" things in your life that could fall down before that.
And mostly even they don't.

And then again, most people go long stretches without anything happening. I
feel that thinking about what will keep them without accidents and what will
keep others cracking their heads inevitably leads, and narrows down, to the
question of what is your theology.

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wallflower
This is not as harrowing as the story referenced, and I have a memory of
playing with a childhood friend around age 9 with an Erector set. For some
reason, we decided to connect the metal parts (don't remember if there was a
motor attached) to a nightlight (we moved the bulb). There was a spark and the
house went dark. I quickly said goodbye to my friend's parents and learned the
next day that we had managed to make the entire suburban block go dark. The
teachers at our school heard about it. To be honest, I felt it gave me some
sort of notoriety.

But in retrospect it was a really stupid WTF episode. I think my parents
didn't let me play with him much afterwards. I should try to look him up on
Facebook. He probably won't remember or will claim not to remember. Stupid
childhood mistakes that you survive. Memory is a good thing because it can be
over-written.

~~~
aymeric
He is maybe the author of the blog post :)

~~~
Loy
Indeed. It was a very pleasant surprise to get on the HN front page on a first
blog post. I must be a lucky guy ;)

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Eliezer
I think this was just luck, actually. Let's see him do it again.

~~~
almost
I think that was the point of the story. Did I miss something?

~~~
Eliezer
Er, I think you missed the sarcasm? Someone needs to invent a font that stands
for sarcasm.

~~~
almost
Sarcasm doesn't work that well over the internet. Especially not in short
bursts like tike that.

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JacobAldridge
I had a friend who actually managed to burn down his parents home as a kid.
They ended up moving cities, so I suppose if his original street is ever
targeted in a nuclear explosion he can claim the inverted lottery!

~~~
T_S_
I know someone who did that too. Now he is a drive time dj on a funny morning
radio show. He lists that accomplishment in his bio on the station's website.
Talk about making lemonade out of lemons!

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lindvall
Is there more to this than just a random anecdote? I feel like one of the
nobodies that didn't seem to care.

