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How to Be More Agentic

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Re: How to Be More Agentic

#21

Post by kevindamm »

Podgajski wrote: post #8
yamrzou wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can directly control the amount of luck you receive: “Your Luck Surface Area, is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you're passionate about combined with the total number of people to whom this is effectively communicated.” How to increase your luck surface area (2010) — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25968751

The very definition of the word luck goes against what you’re saying. “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” This is a saying that sounds good, but makes no sense. For example, how do you change your luck of getting a coin to flip 90% of the time on tails? So you would say that one was lucky if they flipped a coin 10 times and nine times out of 10 It landed on tails w…

The confusion, I think, is that many people see opportunity as luck, especially so when that opportunity was grasped by someone else.

Also even if luck is a stable quantity, it's helped by attempts at success.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#23

Post by stpe »

Podgajski wrote: post #7
gumby wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luck happens to those who let it. Random opportunity comes along, you happen to be in a position to take advantage of it, and you happen to see it as it arrives.

What’s with all the woo hoo here on HN? The very definition of the word luck goes against your “frame it on the wall” feely good saying. “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” but I guess you’re also saying that people who get cancer are just letting it happen? Maybe they should’ve investigated the edges. You see there are two types of luck, good luck and bad luck. Ho…

It is a numbers game. And by increasing the number of chances to "play", you increase the probability of scoring (i.e. "increase your luck surface area").

> How do you know if by increasing your good luck in one area you’re not increasing your bad luck in another?

I think you do know. Eat healthy and move => most likely will increase the probability of be able to be more active at an older age. Build and launch projects => increase the probability of building a profitable business (but if doing that makes you burnout - sure, you could say you increased your "bad luck" from a health perspective)

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#26

Post by inglor_cz »

Podgajski wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Few people are constantly unlucky, like, day after day after day. Most of our lives are stochastic enough that luck and bad luck, on average, balance out. A random walk in both directions.

"Oh, and being rich helps your agency quite a lot." - Yeah, if you can manage your wealth, but if a stupid person somehow gets a lot of money, my bet would be on them losing those in spectacular way within a few years.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#27

Post by broscillator »

Podgajski wrote: post #7
gumby wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luck happens to those who let it. Random opportunity comes along, you happen to be in a position to take advantage of it, and you happen to see it as it arrives.

What’s with all the woo hoo here on HN? The very definition of the word luck goes against your “frame it on the wall” feely good saying. “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” but I guess you’re also saying that people who get cancer are just letting it happen? Maybe they should’ve investigated the edges. You see there are two types of luck, good luck and bad luck. Ho…

In these comments your agency is entirely aimed at negativity. In order to justify this you reframe it as realism.

It's kind of like walking outside with your attention constantly focused on the fact that you might step on dog shit.

If you do this, your agency is pulled away from appreciating a beautiful flower, or interchanging smiles with a pretty person, or seeing a hundred dollar bill off to the side.

The fact that it is true that you can step on dog shit doesn't make it more true than the fact that most of the time you don't step on dog shit, and that you have the agency to walk and go around as if you weren't going to step on dog shit today.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#28

Post by ponector »

Podgajski wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Success is always based on luck. With hard work you can increase your odds to win, but anyway it is about the luck.

Anyone who is successful by your standards was lucky enough to born free in a good wealthy society. They could born and live as slaves in Africa and work for food and shelter without any chances to be successful.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#29

Post by whstl »

Podgajski wrote: post #7
gumby wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luck happens to those who let it. Random opportunity comes along, you happen to be in a position to take advantage of it, and you happen to see it as it arrives.

What’s with all the woo hoo here on HN? The very definition of the word luck goes against your “frame it on the wall” feely good saying. “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” but I guess you’re also saying that people who get cancer are just letting it happen? Maybe they should’ve investigated the edges. You see there are two types of luck, good luck and bad luck. Ho…

Respectfully, I find your definition of luck more "woo woo" than everyone else's.

I might be misunderstanding your point, but other people are treating luck as mere chance or odds, while you seem to me to be treating it as something binary that sounds a bit like "destiny" or "predeterminism".

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#30

Post by danenania »

nick__m wrote: post #20

Assume everything is learnable This made me think of late grandmother who used to say : "c'est faite par du mondes" which roughly expand to "a person did/learned/discovered that so there is no a prioi reason that I cannot do so myself". That's the greatest value she passed unto me. When I feel that I cannot do something, I think about that phrase and persevere.

Something else I find encouraging, and the reason, basically, that "everything is learnable" is that all knowledge, no matter how complex, is composed of fundamentally simple parts. Just as complex tasks or complex movements are composed of many simple steps or movements.

This is what makes the maxim that "you don't understand something unless you can explain it in simple terms" true.

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