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Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#61

Post by pmsaue0 »

oz wrote: post #45

I've always thought of myself as being very lucky. When I was younger, I attributed this to the fact that my parents were Christians and that 'God was watching over us.' But in truth, my mind seems overwhelmingly to ignore the bad and remember the good. This is partly due to my narcissism. I'm special! Now as an atheist, I've come to accept and indeed appreciate the role of pure, random chance in our lives. What happ…

I think the main thing to realize regarding the Fundamental Attribution Error is that when committing the error you are judging others and yourself on differing criteria.

For example, if you, when experiencing 'bad luck', tend to recognize its source as your environment rather than qualities of your person, it would be because of the Fundamental Attribution Error that you would incorrectly assume that the same 'bad luck' experienced by someone else is because of some qualities of that person rather than their environment. In many cases, especially with regard to 'good luck' it's just the opposite: For yourself you see the 'good-luck' as coming from YOU, for others you see the 'good-luck' as coming from their environment.

It's been helpful for me to remember these things especially when someone ticks me off or whatever... It's incorrect to assume that my neighbor being a douche is because deep down he is a douche-bag, rather than because of his crappy morning that I know nothing about. I would want to be given the same courtesy.

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#62

Post by Mz »

as_anon wrote: post #34
Mz wrote: post #30

I am someone who seems to often have phenomenal "good luck". My subjective experience is that it also relates to how you treat other people. Just being consistently polite and having good boundaries opens up opportunities in a big way -- often to a degree that astonishes me.

I do all of this, and my personal life has had lots of good luck in the last five years, but at the utter expense of my professional luck. I have had an astounding series of bad luck, especially recently. I do all the things you mention, the article mentions, etc. And still, it seems as if my luck as gone from bad to worse. It's shocking to me. Certainly a large part of this is my fault; I had too much hubris and sel…

It's not like my life is ALL cherries and no pits. But because of the personal challenges I have had, I simply couldn't make it if I didn't have some serious "saving graces" going on.

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#63

Post by dlnovell »

hegemonicon wrote: post #48

Unlucky people tend to be more focused on whatever they happen to be doing because they're worried about making a mistake. But there's quite a bit of evidence that this sort of conscious, focused thought uses up so many mental resources that it can actually become a hindrance. Professional athletes perform significantly worse when they actively contemplate their behavior, and focusing on something prevents the mindwa…

Henceforth... "icing the kicker"

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#64

Post by BrandonM »

codexon wrote: post #59
cojadate wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article was saying that luck was down to mindset, not psychic ability! Richard Wiseman's claims are in no way affected by the experiment you just mentioned, because games of pure chance are not affected by mindset. Most of life is affected by mindset.

Again you and the author are twisting the definition of luck. I will use this example again. If I learn how to prospect for gold, does this count as increasing my luck since chances are higher that I will be able to find gold? The answer is a resounding no. Getting a better life from a positive mindset cannot be attributed to luck anymore than learning any other skill (say a MD) is making me any luckier.

Twisting your definition of luck? Obviously the "lucky" people in the experiment considered themselves lucky based on a different metric than yours. The "unlucky" people seemed to be using a similar metric. This experiment addressed that metric. So what's the problem?

I will use this example again. If I learn how to prospect for gold, does this count as increasing my luck since chances are higher that I will be able to find gold?

How did you learn to prospect for gold? How did you decide where to prospect? If you're "lucky", you saw someone at the bar buy a round of shots because of a nice day prospecting, you struck up a conversation with him, became acquaintances, and joined him on his next prospecting trip. If you're "unlucky", you thought, Man, that guy's so lucky. Everyone's luckier than me, as you took the shot and ordered another beer.

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#65

Post by jcl »

For an alternate (and more rigorous) view on the feedback between positive outlook and positive experience, see Martin Seligman's Learned Optimism.

In it, he describes a number of experiments to show that how optimistic we are depends on how we choose to interpret past events. He also shows that increased optimism has measurable positive effects in many occupations and that a person's seemingly inherent level of optimism can usually be changed through a set of behavioral exercises. (However, he also points out that optimism can be a detriment in some circumstances.)

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#67

Post by nollidge »

hegemonicon wrote: post #48

Unlucky people tend to be more focused on whatever they happen to be doing because they're worried about making a mistake. But there's quite a bit of evidence that this sort of conscious, focused thought uses up so many mental resources that it can actually become a hindrance. Professional athletes perform significantly worse when they actively contemplate their behavior, and focusing on something prevents the mindwa…

Agree entirely. Just today I was staring at some code that I intuitively knew could be rearchitected to be simpler, more maintainable, etc., but I couldn't put my finger on just how to do it. So I'd stare at it for half an hour, and then take a break, repeat throughout the day. Now I'm pretty sure exactly what I need to do, and I think it's entirely because I took my attention away from it every so often.

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#68

Post by codexon »

BrandonM wrote: post #64
codexon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again you and the author are twisting the definition of luck. I will use this example again. If I learn how to prospect for gold, does this count as increasing my luck since chances are higher that I will be able to find gold? The answer is a resounding no. Getting a better life from a positive mindset cannot be attributed to luck anymore than learning any other skill (say a MD) is making me any luckier.

Twisting your definition of luck? Obviously the "lucky" people in the experiment considered themselves lucky based on a different metric than yours. The "unlucky" people seemed to be using a similar metric. This experiment addressed that metric. So what's the problem? I will use this example again. If I learn how to prospect for gold, does this count as increasing my luck since chances are higher that I will be able…

The "unlucky" people seemed to be using a similar metric. This experiment addressed that metric. So what's the problem?

Like I said before, just because you think you are lucky does not mean you are lucky. Just as thinking that you are smart does not mean you are smart.

If you're "lucky", you saw someone at the bar buy a round of shots because of a nice day prospecting, you struck up a conversation with him, became acquaintances, and joined him on his next prospecting trip. If you're "unlucky", you thought, Man, that guy's so lucky. Everyone's luckier than me, as you took the shot and ordered another beer.

That isn't called luck. That is called being optimistic.

Consider this scenario: "Lucky" person A notices a Nigerian 411 scam, and decides to do it, not knowing it was a scam, while "unlucky" person B does not know that those are scams as well, but did not notice it anyway because "unlucky" people are less perceptive.

Who is truly the lucky one now? The "unlucky" person is, because not only did he not waste his time on that "opportunity", but the chance that he does not lose any money is much higher than the "lucky" chump who likes to believe that everything is a gift from the heavens just for him.

Re: Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn

#69

Post by [deleted] »

BrandonM wrote: post #64
codexon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again you and the author are twisting the definition of luck. I will use this example again. If I learn how to prospect for gold, does this count as increasing my luck since chances are higher that I will be able to find gold? The answer is a resounding no. Getting a better life from a positive mindset cannot be attributed to luck anymore than learning any other skill (say a MD) is making me any luckier.

Twisting your definition of luck? Obviously the "lucky" people in the experiment considered themselves lucky based on a different metric than yours. The "unlucky" people seemed to be using a similar metric. This experiment addressed that metric. So what's the problem? I will use this example again. If I learn how to prospect for gold, does this count as increasing my luck since chances are higher that I will be able…

[deleted]
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