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The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

nautil.us

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Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#21

Post by colanderman »

brwsr wrote: post #12

In order to get lucky with something you have to give luck a chance. There is no way to win a lottery when you don't buy a ticket in the first place. The more tickets you buy (the more involved you are), the greater the chance you'll win (luck). What's more to it? Btw, what is luck? Some things that make you happy in the short term can easily destroy everything that's dear to you in the long term.

A long time ago I was inspired by a comment on HN which put this in terms of "increasing your luck surface area". The phrasing stuck with me and I've applied it to my life ever since.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#22

Post by phil21 »

da02 wrote: post #19
pm90 wrote: post #16

This is actually a very interesting article. And with the risk of attracting the wrath on internet haters, let me propose something that personally helped me a lot and which seems like a very narrow application of the principles described in the article: meeting romantic partners. I tend to be more open in talking to strangers and that has opened up worlds of opportunities to me. But the biggest benefit has certainly…

What do you mean by adventures?

Life experiences and personal growth. Opening yourself up to others (especially interesting others!) and entering their world is about the only way I've seen humans reliably grow and change as individuals.

Something I wish I would have learned and internalized at a much younger age!

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#23

Post by chronotis »

My family has always made jokes about or accused me of being unusually lucky. I didn't really believe that was the case; over time, my standard response to these suggestions is that we can manufacture luck. That wasn't based on any actual research, though, so it's refreshing to see some data back me up.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#24

Post by expertentipp »

da02 wrote: post #19
pm90 wrote: post #16

This is actually a very interesting article. And with the risk of attracting the wrath on internet haters, let me propose something that personally helped me a lot and which seems like a very narrow application of the principles described in the article: meeting romantic partners. I tend to be more open in talking to strangers and that has opened up worlds of opportunities to me. But the biggest benefit has certainly…

What do you mean by adventures?

STD and scabies mostly

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#25

Post by kerng »

I liked reading this, the experiment with the 20 dollar bill is fascinating (although it didn't seem super scientific). You can't control life, but there are opportunities in abundance around us - we just have to walk through the world with an open eye and mind.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#26

Post by digaozao »

colanderman wrote: post #21
brwsr wrote: post #12

In order to get lucky with something you have to give luck a chance. There is no way to win a lottery when you don't buy a ticket in the first place. The more tickets you buy (the more involved you are), the greater the chance you'll win (luck). What's more to it? Btw, what is luck? Some things that make you happy in the short term can easily destroy everything that's dear to you in the long term.

A long time ago I was inspired by a comment on HN which put this in terms of "increasing your luck surface area". The phrasing stuck with me and I've applied it to my life ever since.

Good book for you: Luck Factor. It talks a lot about this.

https://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/books/the-luck-factor/

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#27

Post by marcus_holmes »

davebryand wrote: post #10

"The strategies included using meditation to enhance intuition, relaxation, visualizing good fortune, and talking to at least one new person every week." These are basic techniques that have been taught by almost every spiritual system for thousands of years. Unfortunately for all of my atheist-materialist friends, you have to change your metaphysical views to employ these techniques.

Atheist-materialist here. Also meditator, and visualiser.

It's just psychology. No need to invoke deities.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#28

Post by Ntrails »

pm90 wrote: post #16

This is actually a very interesting article. And with the risk of attracting the wrath on internet haters, let me propose something that personally helped me a lot and which seems like a very narrow application of the principles described in the article: meeting romantic partners. I tend to be more open in talking to strangers and that has opened up worlds of opportunities to me. But the biggest benefit has certainly…

> Let me qualify this by saying that I do not condone pestering strangers; that is borderline harassment (especially for women).

There is really no way to know in advance whether initiating a conversation with a stranger is welcome or not, the only way to find out is to try. It's unreasonable to place the burden of a person to signal "don't impose yourself on me" when you could simply leave them alone and not take the risk of being an inconvenience

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#30

Post by godelski »

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #9

I'm skeptical of a definition of luck where you can be trained to be lucky. That's not luck, that's skill. There is no skill to luck by definition. But let's take what we've got here and engage with it: >She came up with a few basic strategies for parents to teach their kids, including being open to new experiences, learning to relax, maintaining social connections, and (yes) talking to strangers. All of these techni…

The harder I work the luckier I am.

That saying is really what this article is getting at. There are a lot of opportunities that happen in life. What people CALL luck is highly dependent upon taking action when an opportunity is presented. What the article is saying is that the people we consider lucky are more likely to take advantage of an opportunity. Maybe some people are more lucky than others (I mean stats would suggest that this is likely true), but they may not be the people we generally consider lucky.

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