Lucky You

Posted by on Apr 12, 2011 in Random | 5 comments

It’s a super busy week so I’m afraid I’ll be linking to lots of other people’s writing rather than offering my own. Don’t worry though. This one is fascinating!

  • Man Ee

    I guess, another way to think about it would be that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

  • http://www.christopherchsimmons.com Christopher Simmons

    Seneca. Nice.

  • Kusumoto

    how “lucky” of me to have found this article.

    thanks christopher!

  • David Thorn

    I had a problem with how the test was carried out so I looked it up further and in an article on BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3335275.stm ), Richard Wiseman describes one of these such experiments

    “I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: “Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250.”

    This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high.”

    None-the-less this idea of luck being dependent on focus is an interesting one. However, there still is the issue of defining and quantifying luck. Placebo effect is something I feel could greatly effect the survey results as they are dependent on the person’s mood and overall the timing of the survey.

    I feel like true luck is entirely dependent on someone’s disposition and outlook on life, not so much their focus on little things here or there. Furthermore, the level of value people place on different objects could change their view of luck.

    It’s a strange thing to grasp.

    • Nathan

      Strange indeed.

      Do you think older people are generally unluckier then, because as they grow their dispositions and outlooks become more set?