Lucky Me

"Luck is probability taken personally" (from Wikipedia article on luck.)

To the above quote, I must say: Exactly! As a rationalist I don't really believe in luck. But it's really hard not to. It's very difficult to not take it personally when misfortune befalls, or when fortune comes your way. To read into random events some greater significance. It's hardwired into our brains - seeing patterns is part of the adaptation that helped us evolve into the thinking beings we are.

I tend to be unlucky. Games of chance etc. usually don't pan out for me. Really? Actually - that's just me taking probability personally. Adding my experiences with random factors and finding I'm on the losing end most of the time gets put into the belief "I'm unlucky". But it just isn't so.

I think we "create our own luck". Let me explain:

Some people seem very lucky. Take my brother-in-law for example. The guy always seems to be landing on great deals and having things turn out his way. It's like he has a golden horseshoe up his .... But does he? No, not really. The guy is charismatic and extroverted and smart. He talks to everyone and people tell him things. That's how he learns of opportunities and he's smart enough to know which ones are worth seizing. Simple as that. It's not luck - it's personality.

I, on the other hand, am introverted and fairly shy. I've opened up a bit over the years, but in general I have a long long way to go before I can create the kind of "luck" that my brother-in-law naturally has.

In terms of pure chance I had some actual luck recently. I'm a big fan of cryptozoology and Sasquatch in particular (I know I said I'm a rationalist - what am I doing being a fan of a myth - I'll talk about that another time). Anyway, I became one of the first 100 fans of a FaceBook fan site for Bigfoot surplus which is a store that sells all kinds of cool Bigfoot stuff. I didn't even know there was contest, but they drew 3 names out of the first 100 fans to win T-shirts. I won. 3% chance - not too shabby!

It's a really cool shirt showing a Sasquatch in silhouette wearing an iPod. Here's the pic of the shirt (links to the T-shirt's page on their store):


And a link to the Bigfoot surplus store (no, I'm not getting commission - I plug the stuff I like for free! :o)



Bye for now and best of"luck" in whatever you're up to.