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Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

#23

Post by thalur »

sophacles wrote: post #13
argv_empty wrote: post #5

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

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 connot…

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.

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

#24

Post by sp332 »

jimfl wrote: post #6

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

"On one hand, every single one of my ancestors going back billions of years has managed to figure it out. On the other hand, that's the mother of all sampling biases." -- http://xkcd.com/674/ (hover text)

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

#25

Post by carbocation »

F_J_H wrote: post #20

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

"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 )

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

#26

Post by 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".

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

#28

Post by watmough »

emarcotte wrote: post #16
jimfl wrote: post #6

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

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

Actually 'unlucky' if I remember correctly.

The 'lucky' ones were unreachable.

Didn't Teela end up as the protector?

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

#29

Post by MrHyde »

carbocation wrote: post #25
F_J_H wrote: post #20

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

"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 )

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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