How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
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How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
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Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#2A theory that only works for people who are lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people.
Some people have the misfortune to know people whose usual reaction is throwing sand in other people's gears. People who crap on other people's plans.
Just as good luck can compound, so can bad luck.
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#3A theory that only works for people who are lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people. Some people have the misfortune to know people whose usual reaction is throwing sand in other people's gears. People who crap on other people's plans. Just as good luck can compound, so can bad luck.
> A theory that only works for people who are lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people.
It's possible to change who surrounds you. By socializing in new bubbles, making new friends, or just plain moving to a new location.
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#4By increasing the size of your exposure. Ideally, diversifying exposure to opportunities/people/circles/etc.
This should be done concurrently with (if not as a result of) increasing quality and amount of your output. By the time you meet the 'right' person, are in the 'right circle', you'll have something to show. Otherwise, it's wasted opportunity, and hence wasted luck.
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#5By increasing the size of your exposure. Ideally, diversifying exposure to opportunities/people/circles/etc. This should be done concurrently with (if not as a result of) increasing quality and amount of your output. By the time you meet the 'right' person, are in the 'right circle', you'll have something to show. Otherwise, it's wasted opportunity, and hence wasted luck.
That's what the article says:
Luck = Doing * Telling
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#6A theory that only works for people who are lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people. Some people have the misfortune to know people whose usual reaction is throwing sand in other people's gears. People who crap on other people's plans. Just as good luck can compound, so can bad luck.
> A theory that only works for people who are lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people. It's possible to change who surrounds you. By socializing in new bubbles, making new friends, or just plain moving to a new location.
With enough bad luck, it's possibly to never have the opportunity to make those changes.
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A theory that only works for people who are lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive people. It's possible to change who surrounds you. By socializing in new bubbles, making new friends, or just plain moving to a new location.
With enough bad luck, it's possibly to never have the opportunity to make those changes.
That’s what the internet is for!
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#8I'll stick with the proverbial Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Which is actually a generalization of the author's (relatively narrow) thesis where 'opportunity' depends primarily on the people that you meet and the 'preparation' is being passionate about something.
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#9(2010). There's since been much discussion of this post here, and generalization to other aspects of life. E.g. I remember the example, if your goal is to date a model, start hanging out in places (cafes/bars) where models hang out.
Re: How to increase your luck surface area (2010)
#10Product-market fit often has an element of luck, otherwise someone else would have found the opportunity already. So this is really good advice for anyone working on a startup, it's sort of another way of saying the classic YC advice that you should be "building things and talking to customers".
I really like this mental model, one thing I've noticed about my failed startup attempts is that I did a lot of "doing" but not "telling".