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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

#71

Post by gowld »

Ntrails wrote: post #28
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 th…

It's also unreasonable to place the burden of a person to signal "please connect with me" when you could simply reach out tho them alone and not take the risk of increasing their loneliness.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#72

Post by Ngunyan »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #27
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.

Agnostic here.

No deities were invoke by saying "almost every spiritual system". Spiritual ≠ Belief in deities.

But then again, the post you were replying to is also mistaken that atheist-materialists have to change their metaphysical views to employ these techniques.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#73

Post by gowld »

RangerScience wrote: post #53
Ntrails wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

Step One: Eye contact (sustained) Step Two: "Hello!" Step Three:

I'd move "sustained" to after the Hello", otherwise it's creepy staring.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#74

Post by gowld »

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…

serendipity = preparation + luck.

The combined force is greater than either alone.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#75

Post by gowld »

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #46
godelski wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 woul…

But that's what I'm saying in my comment, I even directly address the issue of hard work. To be a hard worker implies all sorts of luck on its own. If you're a hard worker you've probably grown up in an environment where either the value of hard work was present and its importance was impressed on you explicitly or you've learned implicitly by having contact with hard workers and contact with not hard workers where t…

It's more like "Seek and you shall find". Or "the last place you look is the first place you find."

You might be lucky enough to be born on top of a geyser of bubbling crude. If not, you need to go prospecting, not sit and wait for it to come to you.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#76

Post by gowld »

acconrad wrote: post #2

One of the experiments in the post mentions that in order to claim the prize, you could either count the number of photographs or easily discover the message "you can stop counting, there are 43 photographs on here." What I wonder is if there are negative correlations here as well - for example if lucky people are better at (and more open to) discovering things, does that also mean they're more likely to blindly foll…

Yep, it's a weak methodology. A better one would be "Take a break from counting, and show this frobnozzle to the administrator for a special bonus prize!" That rewards the "openness" they are looking for without making it into a relatively high-stakes gamble with a pre-fabricated outcome.

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#77

Post by gowld »

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.

Seems to go back to 2010 in the HN context:

https://page99test.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/making-the-front...

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#78

Post by gowld »

davebryand wrote: post #70
wilsonnb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wikipedia page for the eight-circuit model of consciousness explained what it was pretty well but presented no evidence or arguments in favor of it. Do you know of any sources that that give such arguments? I am also curious as to how state of the art physics fits into the rest of your list. I assume it's related to the eight-circuit model and opening yourself up to the possibility that there is more to the unive…

Like most things that involve consciousness, the evidence is personal and experiential (Which is why people use the term psuedo-science for much of the information in this domain. Ironically, I now use that label as a signal for further research as opposed to something that I would reject out of hand). In my case, when I found the 8-circuit model, it was the best framework that I had found to explain the changes to m…

pseudo-science is deceptive promotion of falsehoods. Under-informed speculation is more "quasi-science"

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#79

Post by mettamage »

I remember a book I read years ago called The Luck Factor. It is a pop psychology book, and outlines the principles of luck and goes in-depth about it. I internalized most of the principles a little bit.

One time I was in London and lost my bus ticket to Amsterdam. I really needed some luck. So I asked myself "what would the author of the book do?" I sought out the highest manager I could find, which eventually was the bus driver himself and he listened to my story and said "we have a spare seat, so you can take that."

And with that the book had paid for itself!

There are more situations in which I used those principles and they work quite well. It changed my whole outlook on how lucky I am. I feel a lot more lucky nowadays then I used to as a kid, where I always felt I would never be lucky. You can debate to what extent I am nowadays more lucky on an objective sense, but I feel using the principles from that book (of which being open to new things is one of them) helped me a lot.

I am not affiliated with that book. I just love a good pop psychology book (another good one is Man's Search for Meaning, for example, which is to be fair a lot more than only pop psychology).

Re: The Key to Good Luck Is an Open Mind

#80

Post by [deleted] »

mettamage wrote: post #79

I remember a book I read years ago called The Luck Factor. It is a pop psychology book, and outlines the principles of luck and goes in-depth about it. I internalized most of the principles a little bit. One time I was in London and lost my bus ticket to Amsterdam. I really needed some luck. So I asked myself "what would the author of the book do?" I sought out the highest manager I could find, which eventually was t…

[deleted]
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