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Be more lucky

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Re: Be more lucky

#51

Post by mcmoor »

n4r9 wrote: post #34
331c8c71 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you picture what a person must pull off to get that seat? It's unimaginable. On the other hand there is a seat that must be filled and hence there will be somebody taking that place. It's a zero sum game: if you win I lose. I would rate proving Poincare conjecture and that kind of thing much higher because its _not_ zero-sum and is a pure advancement.

I'm not sure what point you're making. Chess is zero-sum (modulo draws), but being world #1 is impressive.

I guess what he means that being #1 doesn't always means you're that good, maybe the competitors are just lame. Some videos of Olympic 1918 shows that the winner is totally unimpressive because the participants are just few amateurs. But after all it's another function of supply (seat) vs demand (challengers).

Re: Be more lucky

#52

Post by nutthugger »

filoleg wrote: post #43
tropdrop wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi . Though a more precise variant that specifically means "lucky" exists ( udachlivyi , meaning possessing greater chances), schastlivyi is more often used to describe a person, with the semantic content being that they are both happy and lucky. For example, the famous Tolstoy quote about unhappy families being different and…

> In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi. Where are you getting this info from? I am a native speaker, and the two words one would typically use for “lucky” in Russian are “везучий” or “удачливый”. I’ve never heard of“счастливый” being used to refer to any kind of luck or even allude to it. If someone asked me to translate that word, it is straight up the exact…

> I’ve never heard of “счастливый” being used to refer to any kind of luck or even allude to it

"счастливый случай" (lucky chance), guy probably meant

Re: Be more lucky

#53

Post by filoleg »

nutthugger wrote: post #52
filoleg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi. Where are you getting this info from? I am a native speaker, and the two words one would typically use for “lucky” in Russian are “везучий” or “удачливый”. I’ve never heard of“счастливый” being used to refer to any kind of luck or even allude to it. If someone asked me to translate that word, it is straight up the exact…

> I’ve never heard of “счастливый” being used to refer to any kind of luck or even allude to it "счастливый случай" (lucky chance), guy probably meant

"Счастливый случай" is more of an equivalent of “happy accident”saying in english. It is an almost literal translation of the saying that just happens to work the exact same way in both languages.

That doesn’t mean that “happy” (in english) is synonymous with “lucky” or that it makes sense to apply “happy” the same way outside of that saying in english. Same thing in russian with "счастливый случай". If you use "счастливый” to apply to something outside of that saying, it will mean “happy” 100% of the time. If you try using it in place of “lucky” in russian, I can guarantee that people will be very confused even after you explain your reasoning for doing so.

P.S. “случай” literally means accident/happenstance, it doesn’t mean chance. There is a word for chance in russian that is extremely commonly used, and it is pretty much the same as the english word (“шанс” pronounced as “shahns”).

Re: Be more lucky

#54

Post by sandspar »

swagasaurus-rex wrote: post #47
sandspar wrote: post #38

I think of Charlie Munger's "good investment is knowing when it's wise to not diversify". The luckiest people I know tend to have a soft, scattered approach as advocated in the article, followed by striking hard and quadrupling down when they find something that works. Arnold Schwarzenegger is very lucky and he uses that strategy. "My genetics and frame are perfect for body building? Guess I'll quadruple down on it."

Schwarzenegger had posters of body builders on his wall growing up. He was dedicated to it from the beginning.

He's said that he had a difficult relationship with his father, who sounds like a mean, small-minded man. The posters of half naked men on Arnold's wall probably didn't help.

Bodybuilding was once mocked. Maybe it needed someone who grew up defying norms to make it popular.

Re: Be more lucky

#55

Post by snowpid »

keybored wrote: post #41
snowpid wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" The great leaders are masters at that. I often think about the current China leader for example. It's just an example. " You mean that guy who brings Chinese economy into troubles and just does one genocide (or two, if you count Tibet).

I love how grand parent used that as an example instead of some boring “business luminary”. Now people are gonna politi-rage in a third of the replies.

Xi is just a stupid example. He is way from a great leader.

Re: Be more lucky

#56

Post by tropdrop »

filoleg wrote: post #43
tropdrop wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi . Though a more precise variant that specifically means "lucky" exists ( udachlivyi , meaning possessing greater chances), schastlivyi is more often used to describe a person, with the semantic content being that they are both happy and lucky. For example, the famous Tolstoy quote about unhappy families being different and…

> In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi. Where are you getting this info from? I am a native speaker, and the two words one would typically use for “lucky” in Russian are “везучий” or “удачливый”. I’ve never heard of“счастливый” being used to refer to any kind of luck or even allude to it. If someone asked me to translate that word, it is straight up the exact…

I am also a native speaker. The context I hear it is when, for example, someone wins a game or finds loot within one – "Эх, какой счастливый!...." or "Счастливый человек!" Another example: "у него счастливая рука" (he has a lucky hand [at cards]) [1].

Most dictionaries will offer both happy and lucky side by side (with "happy" being the first definition, "lucky" the second). See the links for some textual examples.

In other households it could very well be that you use "везучий" or "удачливый" more often, but mine (grant it, very far from Moscow) never has.

1 - https://dictionary.reverso.net/russian-english/счастливый 2 - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-russian/...

Re: Be more lucky

#57

Post by User3456335 »

filoleg wrote: post #43
tropdrop wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi . Though a more precise variant that specifically means "lucky" exists ( udachlivyi , meaning possessing greater chances), schastlivyi is more often used to describe a person, with the semantic content being that they are both happy and lucky. For example, the famous Tolstoy quote about unhappy families being different and…

> In support of this: in Russian, the adjective for "lucky" and "happy" is the same – schastlivyi. Where are you getting this info from? I am a native speaker, and the two words one would typically use for “lucky” in Russian are “везучий” or “удачливый”. I’ve never heard of“счастливый” being used to refer to any kind of luck or even allude to it. If someone asked me to translate that word, it is straight up the exact…

I thought this was very cool but then I realized that in Dutch it is the same. Happiness = "Geluk" = Luck. Strangely, we have no word for lucky, and we will simply say that someone often "has luck".

There's so much hidden in homonyms, it almost feels illegal to mention it.

Re: Be more lucky

#58

Post by johnchristopher »

mike-the-mikado wrote: post #10
johnchristopher wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can work harder at tossing coins and toss them more often but previous outcomes do not affect current or future outcomes in any way. No matter how many times in a row a coin lands tails up, there is still only a 50% chance that it will land heads up on the next flip. Working harder/smarter than someone else at something for which each try increases your capability to influence the next try should give you an edge…

If price of failure on a coin toss is less than the value of success, then flipping the coins as rapidly as possible is a winning strategy. (I've worked on failure after failure, but the occasional success has more than compensated for these).

It doesn't matter how fast you flip coins, in the end it'll be 50/50 anyway and you'd still get the same success (price of failure wouldn't matter, it'll always be the same value in the end).
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