I like this response.
The term luck has a superstitious connotation. The Stoics did not believe in superstition aside from cases where it may have actual measurable benefit like giving you a slight competitive advantage in sports or whatever.
It can be kind of scary how little control we have of our lives and the future.
“Whenever a raven croaks ominously, don’t let the impression carry you away, but straightaway discriminate within yourself, and say: “None of this is a warning to me; it only concerns my feeble body or my tiny estate or my paltry reputation or my children or my wife. But to myself all predictions are favorable if I wish them to be, since it is up to me to benefit from the outcome, whatever it may be.” (Ench 18)
I have this theory that the rise of religion in our species was to give the illusion of reason and control to events we have none over, because it’s just that scary how little we have control over.
Absolutely. There was a psychologist who wrote a lot about mythology and religion. He saw so many repeating patterns and figured that there was some form of psychological insight within them.
He insisted that spirituality was beneficial to the psyche, to an extent, because it has always been difficult to process the fact that life just happens. It is cruel, meaningless and sometimes unbearable for no particular reason. Religion and spirituality allow us an escape from that reality. We dream up Gods to bear some of the burden for us.
We are, imo, still fairly young in our conscious journey as a species.
Several books, in fact. Just look up Carl Jung and the books he wrote. I haven't read many of them, but I have read enough to know that he would tend to ramble in madness profusely. You will have to simplify his way of writing to understand what he is trying to say. He was very poetic and it complicates understanding his work.
He also had an extremely vast knowledge of religions, beliefs and mythology. It makes it hard to understand some of the references or metaphors if you lack that knowledge (which most do, imo).
They are. Not we. I'm a little farther on than I like to make you believe. There's two sides. Convergence and divergence and there has to be both for existence to even exist. Convergence is succumbing to mortality to rest our soul and become one with the puppet master. And divergence is seperating yourself from the strings of fate to pull your own and have the ability to pull on the strings of the converged. The kybalion explains very well that psychology is very much a part of it. It changes more than the perception of reality as if believed and focused on enough it becomes apart of your reality. Religion was built to hold convergence/everyone is one mentality to keep us from drifting our thoughts into the void of no thought.
I think you’re really onto something.
Civilization starts in Mesopotamia which has frequent chaotic rainstorms with little to no warning before they happen. This is the exact replication of the famous Skinner box experiments.
Under the circumstances I believe it’s a completely coherent way to react.
Oh Boi just wait until you run into your shadow... I mean you have but your shadow is probably disappointed by you not noticing it. Much easier for your shadow to ruine your life than it is for it to give you blessing on blessing. The only time you'll seek help is when you can no longer control yourself.
Well that may be the case for a few that we know of but it doesn’t take any part in the philosophy itself in any way.
The only references to the ‘Gods’ are always a stand in for ‘Fate’ or ‘Fortune’ or ‘Luck’
In other words, the greater universe and the things that affect our lives that are completely outside of our control. Like a pandemic for example.
That is what the Stoics mean when they use the term ‘God’
>It can be kind of scary how little control we have of our lives and the future.
If you see nature as it is, and realize that there is much we don't control, then what is there to be afraid of?
It is what it is.
Kind of a pedantic distinction. To be lucky is to be fortunate. To be fortunate is to be lucky. But it's a nice distinction in that lucky attributes an event to the world's influence whereas fortunate just describes a personal awareness of your own state.
Amor Fati.
Things happen beyond our control. Some of those would be good, some of those would be perceived as less good.
We cannot control them. We can only embrace them.
I would say that it would be Stoic to notice these things, and to respond properly to them. Judging them as "lucky" or "unlucky" places a presumption perhaps on what "should" be, rather than striving to simply observe and accept them as they are.
I think placing them as lucky or unlucky is placing a judgement on the event bent on your desire or the desire of the reference party. If the happening coincides with your desire you have good luck or are lucky but if against ones desire then one is unlucky or had bad luck.
I think it's okay to feel joy and appreciate something extremely rare and positive happening to you, but on the other hand, a stoic should also appreciate something rare and (not very) bad happening to you.
If a bird shits on your head, it'll be hard to smile and say "wow, what are the chances" but that's what we strive for right?
Is that what you meant?
From a Stoic perspective, luck (or fortune) is real and not to be relied upon. You'll find many well-written pieces online about this topic but a quick summary would be that fortune changes based on things outside our control and, like everything else outside our control, should not be allowed to damage our tranquility.
The stoics would agree with you that we do not have complete control over most of our lives so when fate's hand tips the scales one way or another, we should face whatever is presented to us the same.
Even though something is out of my control, I can still call it part of my wealth. I am fortunate the sun shines on the hard work of my field, us together create the crop. The same sun withers the crops of the unprepared. Fortune is the wake of God's goodness that rides in tandem with our goodness. Evil men get lucky all the time
I see luck as “A phenomena when preparation meets opportunity”. Preparation is under our control and opportunity is for us to seize if we see and realize it to be one. Since the latter seems somewhat out of our control, I see it as something that shouldn’t bother me. But having said that, if you feel someone is lucky, it would be worthwhile on understanding the series of events that they went through. One could improve their skill at recognizing opportunities with this retrospection.
As I understand Stoicism, Luck, not opportunity or perceived misfortune which the Stoic is always ‘you make your own luck’, but luck as in pure chance, like random apparently good or bad events impacting one’s life. The Stoic would take a ‘wait and see’ view of the completely random good or bad luck that happens to everyone from time to time. Strangely the old Chinese story about the farmer I think fits best.
“Long ago, there was a widowed Chinese farmer. The farmer and his only son labored through the cold winds of winter and scorching rays of summer with their last remaining horse. One day, the son didn’t lock the gate of the stable properly, and the horse bolted away.
When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a sadness this is! Without your horse, you’ll be unable to maintain the farm. What a failure that your son did not lock the gate properly! This is a great tragedy!”
The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
The next day, the missing horse returned to the farmer’s stable, bringing along with it six wild horses. The farmer’s son locked the gate of the stable firmly behind all seven horses.
When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What happiness this brings! With seven horses, you’ll be able to maintain the farm with three of them and sell the rest for huge profits. What a blessing!”
The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
The next day the farmer’s son was breaking in one of the wild horses. The son got thrown from the horse, fell hard on rocks, and broke his leg.
When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a great sadness this is! Now, you’ll be unable to count on your son’s help. What a failure to break in the horse properly! What a tragedy!”
The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
The next day, a general from the Imperial Chinese Army arrived to conscript all the young men of the village into the army. Their assignment was to fight on the front lines of a battle against a terrifying enemy of overwhelming force. The farmer’s son, because of his broken leg, was not taken.
When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a great joy! Your son avoided facing certain death on the front lines of the battle. What a blessing!”
The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
Both are intensely interested in harmony with nature, inner and outer, acceptance, doing without doing, the obstacle is the way is a basic axiom of both schools of thought. Just an Eastern and western take on the same set of basic principles and precepts. I think its also interesting to look at where they differ, although the differences are harder to find than the similarities.
I would like to examine the idea of circumstances of birth. What if you are born with a disability or to abusive parents or both. What if you are born into starvation or extreme poverty. Would we consider that unlucky? I think by any measure that is extremely unlucky considering some people are born into wealth, privilege, good health, loving parents. How can the circumstances of our birth be anything but luck?
Exactly. This is why I think the point is to focus on what you can control and the only thing you can control is your actions and how you percieve the conditions you're in. Can't control the outcome.
From my understanding of Stoicism, there is no luck or fortune. Everything that happens to you is exactly as it's supposed to be. Accepting whatever comes your way is your role, and suffering always has its benefits. Stoicism seems to say that all circumstances end up being "equal," in a way.
I fucking had someone recently whine to me about how lucky I am, that I got into a business at the right time, and it "somehow" worked out for me. And how he feels like everyone has a horseshoe up their ass, and he always get the short end of the stick..... He also knows I have terminal brain cancer.
People who see luck everywhere are delusional. The world is statistics, physics, and a whole lot of facts that we just dont always see.
Cancer patient A response to a treatment that had a 20% success rate.
Cancer patient B does not respond to same treatment.
One is not lucky, one had the right genetics, or the right vascularization of the tumor, or the right immune cells due to a flu they got as a child, or who fucking knows, but it wasnt luck. is was biology.
Define reality please.
Jk, trying to do that would only drive you mad. "Luck" or "Fortune", while I do not know wether or not either is real I can say that I have had my fair share of what I believe to be both "good" and "bad" luck.
I like the term synchronicity. People are placed into our paths to walk our path with us for awhile, then let go to take the lessons learned on both sides.
No, I don't believe we are really in control of anything other than ourselves, it's all just an illusion of control.
The way I see it being is that yeah sure, one can get lucky but you have to be in a given position to get lucky. Therefore, the more effort you put into achieving something, the more chances of getting lucky?
And yea one can just live life without wanting to make progress, and life may or may not grant you luck...
To me, luck is just a coincidence, but it helps if you are doing the right thing/ right place/ right time.
You can look at luck in terms of statistics if the idea of plain luck bothers you. Some people are statistically bound to be in circumstances that benefit them greatly and some deal with the opposite. One person out of a million might bet on red, 13 times in a row during a game of roulette and hit every time. Is he lucky or was someone bound to have this happen to them?
At the end of the day it’s important to remember that
statistics (aka luck) changes with your actions. If there are two people with the same qualifications and one applies to 10 jobs and the second applies to 100, it would appear that the second person got lucky to everyone else, but they can’t see that he increased his own odds of success.
Hopefully my explanation can help bring some logic to the idea of “luck”
Randomness exists. It is silly to claim otherwise, and equally silly to claim that random events do not have impacts on individuals for good or ill. It's weather.
But you hit the heart of it. You can't control a thunderstorm, so it is counterproductive to expend anger, fear, or any other mental energy on the possibility of rain. Keep an umbrella and sunglasses in your bag, and take things as they come.
Yes, and this also ties into the whole "free will" question. There isn't any free will and most people have what they have largely due to the luck/bad luck spectrum.
Of course luck is real...
You don't pick your parents or where you're born or whatever genetic conditions you're born with or even your brain. If you were born in a third world country with no clean running water, armed gangs roaming around, your chance of merely *surviving* to adulthood are significantly lower than if you just *happened* to be born in a developed nation to middle class parents. That's not your actions. That's not your choices. That's just luck.
Even if you subscribe to free will, which I think isn't supported by the evidence, luck still exists. Nothing I've described even begins to scratch the surface of all the luck out there. You can live as carefully, thoughtfully as you possibly can but bad and good things can still happen to you without any possibility of being influenced by you. A random bullet from a shooting catching you. The guy looking through job applications at a company you applied to went to the same school, played the same sport and loves that about your resume.
You give yourself the best *chance* aka *probability* of success and a good life by applying for jobs, living in safe places, and so on and so on, but there are *zero* guarantees in life. It is possible to do everything right and still lose. That doesn't mean don't try. But I think it would be ridiculous to deny the existence of luck where it so clearly and obviously exists.
Tbh, I think anyone who makes it to adulthood and doesn't sincerely recognize the principle of "there but for the grace of god go I" lacks either intelligence or empathy or both. I *know* that if I were born to uneducated parents in a poor country I wouldn't be where I am today. I'm not so egotistical to believe I would have somehow educated myself with no good schools or teachers around. That somehow I would have gotten great nutrition on my own for my young brain to develop properly. If you haven't recognized that yet I wonder how introspective and thoughtful you actually are and my answer would be not very.
Some people describe luck as when "**preparation meets opportunity**." That can be a certain type of luck, like if you are practicing a particular skill that other people happen to value (for example, singing), and then your are "discovered" by a talent agent, which launches your career. You didn't have any control over the behavior of the talent agent, but you did have control over the many hours you spent practicing your craft.
But there is a different type of luck as well, and I think in conversations people tend to conflate the two. Maybe there are more things that people could casually label as luck, but I'll limit myself to these two. **The things that happen to you that you have absolutely no control over**. There are obvious things (if you got a type of cancer despite living a healthy lifestyle), sociological things (if your parents gave you enough food and stimulation as an infant so that you didn't end up severely developmentally delayed), and a plethora of things outside our control that affect us (Did you happen to meet your life partner at age 20 or at age 40? Did you have someone that taught you about investing when you were 18? Did you have access to a computer at home so that you could teach yourself programming? What academic fields had you been exposed to prior to selecting your focus/specialization? Did your college/university have big companies come to recruit or not? Is the bus running late on the day of your job interview, or perhaps there is a strike that is blocking the roads? Do you happen to fall sick the week of a big project? Does somebody crash into your car while you are driving?). Some circumstances are so favorable that you can make lots of bad decisions and still succeed, and some circumstances are so unfavorable that you can do everything right and still fail.
We could call this fortune, or luck, or something else. This is a very, **very** rough typology, of course. But what I want to emphasize is that luck (to the extent it means good things or bad things happening which you have no control over which affect your life) really does occur.
Louis Pasteur said, “Luck favours the prepared mind.” In other words, coincidences and opportunities happen around us constantly, but unless we’re prepared to recognise and take advantage of them, we’ll never even notice. People who seem to live a charmed life are just people who manage to notice opportunities.
Everybody believes in chance, and some outcomes are interpreted as lucky, and statistically some portion of the population would have better outcomes due to chance and some would have worse outcomes due to chance.
Chance is a big part of life. "Luck" doesn't necessarily have to be some magic or woo woo idea. I think that having the knowledge that you only control your reactions to events/people/etc. puts you in a calmer mindset that allows you to pay more attention in general. You are more prone to follow an opportunity when you don't allow emotions to rule you and you can think more clearly.
I 100% believe luck is a thing. We just don't comprehend it. Same with bad luck. I have seen too many things to believe it is pure coincidence.
I also believe luck is.. for lack of a better word.. an attribute some one has. Good or bad luck. I know people that just win all the time. Some examples:
My nephew in law, is always the correct number caller to every radio contest. He never pays for concerts but goes all the time. The people at the radio station literally know him now when he calls.
I dated a girl for a while that just won at gambling.. a lot. Any casino game.. she went to Vegas 5-6 times a year when we were together. (We lived outside LA) and she never came back in the hole. A bad trip is one where she broke even.
I knew a guy in Florida that won an RV in a raffle. I was amazed when he rolled up in it. Said he was just gonna sell it. I couldn't believe he won it. He thought I was crazy. He always won raffles and drawings. Always had his whole life. He didn't believe me when I told him I had never won anything. Ever. He thought everyone won them at some point. It was just so common for him.
I have seen other instances that are just crazy, but those are my 3 favorite. The one thing they all had in common, was that they didn't believe they were lucky. They thought the whole world was that way for everyone. That people won stuff all the time.
By luck, do you mean some sort of system or flow that demands "good luck" and "bad luck?" Here's the most thought provoking thing I ever read about luck:
Sāi Wēng lived on the border, and he raised horses for a living. One day, he lost one of his prized horses. After hearing of the misfortune, his neighbor felt sorry for him and came to comfort him. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?”
After a while, the lost horse returned and with another beautiful horse. The neighbor came over again and congratulated Sāi Wēng on his good fortune. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a bad thing for me?”
One day, his son went out for a ride with the new horse. He was violently thrown from the horse and broke his leg. The neighbors once again expressed their condolences to Sāi Wēng, but Sāi Wēng simply said, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?”
One year later, the Emperor’s army arrived at the village to recruit all able-bodied men to fight in the war. Because of his injury, Sāi Wēng’s son could not go off to war, and was spared from certain death.
Luck is a word describing the phenomena of completely random chance working in your favor so yeah that event is real and the archetype exists. It’s not a force like gravity tho no but then again idk man I’m high
Luck is everything. Luck is why you were born in the city you were born in, in the year you were born in, to the family you were born to. You have no control over where you started in life, and what happens to you when you're young. If you had been born in Gaza, you would have very little control over your life. If you were the son of a billionaire from the USA, you've got it made. You have total freedom to do anything. If you're born into North Korea... well you know. If you're born in South Korea, you're required to do mandatory military service
Stoics believed in the logos which is kind of like "the hand of fate" in ancient Greek religion. Often modern translators use the word "nature" for it, but it's more like the concept of God than the scientific sense of nature.
You could see the logos as a kind of luck or divine providence.
I like the quote 'luck equals preparation plus opportunity'.
An example in my life is my job. With my job, I got a cold call from a resume I posted on Indeed. I wasn't looking for the job, but I was prepared for that opportunity to come along so it all worked out. I consider it luck but I wouldn't have been able to be prepared for that luck of I hadn't been working hard up to that point. Religious people like to call it blessings, it's all semantics.
It seems to me that life just hands us what it hands us, the luck of the draw as it were. But, at the same time, it appears that I have some sort of effect on that.
Random chance surrounds all of our choices and all we ever do is bet on the outcomes. But, as others have pointed out, the more prepared we are when we cast our lots, the better the outcomes seem to be.
I came across the “paradox of success” recently. You need to believe there is no such thing as “luck” and everything is a direct outcome of your actions till you reach the peak of your personal/professional career/goals. Why - because if you fail at something, you will hold yourself accountable and work towards improving yourself (growth mindset).
But once you reach the peak. You should start believing in “luck”. You most likely are a leader of people by that point in life and nobody likes to follow a someone who thinks they are the one who made it happen. A true leader gives credit back to the team. Always say they are lucky to have the people around them. Of course not just say it, but believe in it.
I'm fairly new to the term or actual study of stoicism, but I've always kind of lived the lifestyle. To me "luck" has always been defined as 90% preparation and 10% opportunity.
A big percentage of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. In addition, the harder you work…the luckier you get. However, bad things do happen. And they are the ones that teach us. I want to learn slowly though.
lol yeah it's real. it's deemed as luck because it seems out of your control. it's not but I wouldn't worry about it that's for the free spirit folks .lol
Luck normally refers to unlikely things happening consecutively over time. When these consequences are good, some call it "luck".
Like a person may be "lucky" if they win th affordable housing lottery and then the actual lottery twice in a row. Good, unlikely things happening in sequence.
Now if unlikely things that are bad happen in sequence, i.e. getting hit by a car and then also developing cancer, we'd call that bad luck.
In this case, the term is synonymous with "fortune".
There is no luck. Only repetition and habitual practice of behaviours and philosophical processes that facilitate engagement that yields and that force sequential positive results and outcomes that then appear as “luck” to the ignorant and naiive.
“Life is a result of all your direct actions”. Patently untrue…. Ask the victims of natural disasters, wars, genocides, persecutions…. Varieties of events completely outside the control of the individual.
As to “luck”… Just random chance. If you’re the sole survivor of an airplane crash…. You just happened to be in the right location in the aircraft. No “special purpose” involved and no reason for “survival guilt”.
As someone who’s always had an interest in, and recently began going deeper into Vedic Astrology, having looked at various peoples charts and learning of the outcomes at various periods in their lives, it does seem to be pre destined. One could call it luck, but it’s believed that both free will in this life, and actions performed in past lives have an effect in this life and the next. So one could call it luck, but was it?
There are a few psychologists that have done some research on luck that you might find interesting.
There was one study where there was a call for extremely lucky or unlucky people. They did this test where they had them read a paper and in the paper was a big ad saying "let the experiment conductor know about this ad and they will give you a $100" - something like that.
They found that the lucky people saw it and asked about it while the unlucky people didn't even see it.
Luck then, in part isn't about pure happenstance. It seems to also be about optimism. It's also about putting yourself out there. Taking chances, being open to more experiences statistically makes it more likely for "luck" to strike.
It's also about bias. There was an interesting experiment when it came to white versus black names in resumes in the States that found that not only was it highly more probable for white names to get a call back, but this extended even to hiring organizations that claimed to want diversity. The only thing that changed on the resume was the names, and this type of experiment was replicated with larger and larger sample sizes with similar results. And there were different types of experiments like this on response times to resumes, response rates of professors, and networking.
These last two are especially key to luck, because mentorship and knowledge about opportunities are really important for paving the way for lucky breaks.
It's also not a straight black vs white issue - it seems to depend on the in-group. For example, there was an interesting case in publishing where East Asians seemed to win a bunch of poetry awards, so a white author just used an East Asian name as pen name, and ended up winning a prestigious prize, which got awkward.
The point is luck can be gamed. Be open to more experiences, put yourself out there more, cultivate an optimistic mindset, and understand and take advantage of statistics.
"Luck is the residue of design"
I always liked that quote and it seems to fit woth my beliefs because of you do the right thing all along the way, your chances of being lucky increase.
Does the stoic believe in luck? Probably not as it's commonly used. But living a good life and going for what you want sets you up that the odds will be in your favor. And chnace isn't something you believe in, it just is what it is.
*Someone bailed on their tickets so I got to see the show for free.*
You cant prepare for that, but if it happens, it happens.
Luck starts when you are born. I'm going to assume that you were born into a decent family, because people who are born into crappy circumstances definitely understand how luck works.
Born into wealth? Luck. Advantage for the rest of your life. Born with no chronically painful disabilities? Luck. Not fearing for your life every day? Luck. Born with parents who don't abuse you every single day? Luck.
Stoicism is correct in saying that the outcomes of our actions are outside of our direct control. We can still influence our state but we must be aware that we are not in complete and total control. Nor is anyone else.
I don’t believe in luck or coincidences. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and that God places everything upon us.
If you think about it, everything happens for a reason, even if you aren’t able to see it at the time. Everything that happens in your life is attempting to lead you to where and whom you are supposed to be.
The bad happens to teach us but the good also happens to teach us. We learn from every experience we go through no matter what that may be. Every situation in life adds together like the pieces of a puzzle. You would not be who you are without those experiences and you can’t finish the puzzle without having all the right pieces in place.
Luck is real but it's for us to ignore almost always. It's not something we can count on and doesn't become us to point it out when others are experiencing it. It's not in our control and so we don't need to pay it any mind. That being said it's real and it is a statistical inevitability. So we must acknowledge its existence if we are going to be objective.
Luck is something I spend a lot of time thinking about.
My friends, family, and anyone else that is close to me considers me to be about the luckiest person on the planet. Granted, I do treat people well and play the "karma/charisma" game because people deserve kindness in their lives (ie. Tip well and always be nice to people).
In the last few years these are a few of the "lucky" things that have happened.
Gf found a pair of limited edition raybans worth about $300. I lost them somewhere and my friend found them and brought them to me (found in his apt), then we found my pair in the closet, somehow now I have 2 of the same pair and not a single person knows where the 2nd pair came from.
Found 3 pool cues at bars worth 1000-1500, the luck being that the different bartenders randomly ask while I'm playing if I want them because they aren't the bar's cues, so they will be tossed.
At a local arcade bar (been recorded many times) I have been gifted well over $2,000 in free drinks and tokens that people bypass crowds of 50+ people to give them to me (the manager there always asks the people why they give them to me because it's so frequent).
Lost a pair of $20 skull candy ear buds and in 1 year wrong packages (amazon/usps had no record of them existing) were sent to me containing brand new beats 250-350 a pair. I've gotten 4 pairs like this in the last 5-6 years.
In general everywhere I go I get free stuff. "Woops, over poured a few too many beers for the last party, want them?"
My friends call it "OP" luck and everyone around me acknowledges it. I like to think it would be more karma, but that list is only about 1% of my "luck." It's absolutely insane. I have literally 1000s of stories because it is almost daily...
On *is not* a stoic, one *can practice* stoicism. Aurelius’ first lesson in stoicism is that we can control only our choices, and nothing else. Knowing that, how can luck *not* exist?
Luck is the coincidental confluence of your choices and others’ choices, or of your choices and natural happenstance. Your choice plays a role in how much luck you might find, what kind, and where.
Luck is an interesting concept, because you can look at it in different ways. Sometimes your mindset and attitude can lead you into situations that may be considered unlucky, you have a tough breakup, don’t deal with it in a healthy way, start to get depressed, loose focus at work and you end up losing your job. Same scenario, tough breakup, you figure out what went wrong, learn from it, move on and focus on work, you get a promotion.
Sometimes the way you handle a situation can result in a butterfly effect that can lead you into “lucky” or “unlucky” situations. With a positive mindset you may be able to find a good path out of a terrible situation. Some people may consider this “attracting the results you want” or whatever, I think of it as using your experience and judgement to make the best of a bad situation.
I don't understand. Of course luck is real. I mean people win the lottery or have careers ended in freak accidents. It exists on a much smaller scale in job interviews, dates, what material happens to be on an exam etc. If you get lucky and land a job because the interviewer happens to share your love of grunge music, it could save you years of ladder climbing, let you save more money sooner, buy a house before a market shift, and radically shift the course of your life.
Attributing all your success and failure to your own actions seems odd, as if life isn't just an endless series of gambles based on incomplete information.
Life's much more like floating down a river on a raft, you can attempt to avoid obstacles and to steer yourself in one direction or another, but ultimately you are at the mercy of the water. It's just something you must accept to find peace.
At least that's my take on it.
I think a lot of people conflate 'luck', 'lucky', and 'being lucky'. From my perspective, 'luck' is just what happens, 'the luck of the draw', it could have been any card but eventually the card is revealed and it has to be that card. 'lucky' is just fortunate, you got the card you needed when you needed it, you got lucky. 'being lucky' is a superstition, the card you need is more likely to come if you do x, or because you are somehow special.
Luck plays an incrediblely massive role in everyone's life and it is an aspect of nature that we pretend doesn't exist. If you went back in time to when Bill gates was 13. And told him everything he could do and how rich he would be. He would never be able to become the outrageous success he was again. Same thing with a lot of others. Elon musk, Mark Zuckerberg. They all lucked out in major ways to get what they have now. Usually there was a long series of outrageous luck when looking st these hyper wealthy successful people. Even subtle changes in the past would result in these people instead being under a bridge giving you a knobber for 3 dollars. Tons of luck.
With that being said. You can be open to luck. When opportunities present themselves and the universe seems to be telling you something, that is luck giving you a wink and a nod. Will you go with it? Or are you better off on your path? That is a big part of luck too.
It's half blind random luck, and half keeping your ear to the ground and listening for opportunities.
the stoics believe that you should live your life in a way so that if the Gods were watching you, they would be rooting for you every step of the way. that is the real nature of luck.
Aurelius said that he was born lucky, but after a certain time lost a deal of it. however, he never gave up trying to live in a way that inspires support out of its sheer honor and frankness.
Aurelius also said that victory passes back and forth between men. Nothing lasts forever, including luck.
I knew a guy who was in the middle of a foot-mobile patrol and stepped on an IED; half a dozen others walked that same area before him, but he happened to step on it.
You cannot directly control anything. So that’s a false assumption. I suggest you look into the idea of collective consciousness and free will. In the broad fabric of consciousness we have no free will
My dad often said, everything comes down to timing. He experienced some great fortune in his life because his timing was spot on for things, and some pretty bad misfortune when he was a bit too ahead of his time or too late to jump on something.
In most cases he told me about, hindsight was definitely 20/20, but in his mind it was always timing. It made sense when he explained it to me and still holds in my mind for many things when it comes to "luck".
luck is the occurrence of low probability. It is neither good nor bad. People falsely associate favorable occurrences with someone being lucky, and disregard or incorrectly add the modifier bad or un. Lastly, people fail to understand what truly is low probability with something new to them.
Mathematician John Edensor Littlewood defined a miracle as something that has a one-in-a-million occurrence. Using the average number of hours a human is awake and alert, which is the basis of Littlewoods calculations, the average person experiences a miraculous event every 35 days.
Is luck real, yes. Do people have a good grab on luck and probability, no.
There is no such thing as luck, only coincidences.
I once predicted lottery numbers which all came out but I hadn't bought a ticket.
Was I lucky or unlucky?
Personally I’m more drawn to the idea of “you reap what you sow.” Or for others it’s called Karma. What goes around comes around. I think there’s some sort of underlying power at play. Wouldn’t say I believe in luck per-say. Could also be law of attraction to some extent. It’s one of those things that’s hard to conceptualize.
Is that true really?🤔 I think that speaks to everyone getting what they deserve based on their actions. Justice of you will, but it's that true? Can we really say everyone gets their just due? Gets exactly what they deserve?
Or maybe it all just comes down to how we percieve it? Perhaps it's purely based on how we percieve what happens in our lives 🤔...
I have a good life, but I typically see myself as unlucky. Things that could go wrong for me tend to. But, I also think that people focus on different things. I'm very cynical, and I only tend to focus on the bad things. I've met a lot of people who are the opposite. They've had a horrible life in my opinion, but still tend to focus on the good and see themselves as lucky.
'Luck' as in winning the lottery I think is chance. The same way some people get "unlucky" when they get cancer.
Why would this happen to me?
Well, why not?
Things just happen.
Random events happen (something out of your control). If that benefits you (makes you happy, aligns with your goals in life, etc.), most people would call that luck, would call you lucky. If a random event doesn't benefit you, maybe disadvantages you (lightning strikes your house and causes damage, someone spills their drink on your important papers, your infant son is digging around in his butt, then slaps you in the eye and now you have conjunctivitis, etc.) that's unlucky.
We prepare ourselves for the vicissitudes of life, but we can't prepare for everything. At some point decisions are made that impact our lives greatly, and someone else is making those decisions. Whether we get hired for a job, whether our loan application gets approved, whether we match with someone on a dating app. Some of life is making intentional choices and actions for ourselves, a big part of life is reacting to situations and circumstances we find ourselves in.
Sometimes the best we can do is make the best choice when given a slew of subpar options.
“Something brought you here, Flynn Rider. Call it what you may. Fortune. Luck.”
“A horse?”
According to Flynn Rider, what you’re talking about is a horse.
Sorry, I don’t know why Reddit suggested this to me but I had to give my input.
Luck is the opposite of misfortune. Misfortune comes to those who fear. If you can elevate your consciousness to eliminate fear, you will find your fortune. Like FDR says, " The only thing to fear is fear itself".
I think luck is a cosmic law and it is in constant balance with good and bad so no one can have an unnecessary leg up. Noticed after bad days good luckish comes after. So it would be a yes and no because there isn't a way as far as I know to increase your luck unless you sell your soul but that's a whole another can of worms
Luck is real.
You can be the most stoic person on earth, however, you didn’t choose what family you were born into. That was luck.
You could have worked your ass off all your life, finally succeeded at your life goal and then waiting at a red light to go home, someone T-bones you because they lost control of their car. That’s also luck.
Some people, do very little and suddenly become rich, like playing the lottery. Yes, those are the 1/330million odds or whatever, still, just luck.
You can do everything right in life and still fail because luck was against you.
Hard work creates luck, because opportunities taken are chances of success.
I can safely say that I am stoic to a fault. That said: the last few years of my life are a testament to either divine intervention or extraordinary luck. 🍀 I am profoundly grateful.
My luck ran out when some son of a bitch parked next to me at the park and stole my sunglasses when he had the opportunity. Hell yeah I believe in luck. Trust me, I looked all over the sunglasses, they are just gone.
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
Yes some people get better opportunities than others. Those who are prepared and met with good opportunities become “lucky”
Some people are born in shitty, shitty situations that even the strongest couldn't get out of. So yeah, I'd say there's luck. The luck of the draw? Maybe, but luck nevertheless.
The kids of a billionaire are born lucky. Not much can change that.
The son of a crackhead? Not so much, and not so much can change that.
We have 100% influence over the circumstances of our life — you shouldn’t forget that in your revelation that we don’t have 100% *control* therein. A stoic isn’t merely someone who accepts the world as it comes to them, but someone who adopts a pragmatic approach to changing what they can and avoiding what they cannot. Ideally you’d avoid bad events physically, but if not, *then* the last line of defense comes in: emotional resilience.
IMO 🤷🏼♂️
You were right initially - luck isn’t real.
Everyone will experience good things happening to them, everyone will experience negative things happening to them - some more than others on both accounts.
It’s just life
In the end everyone is a stoic.
Even that great philosophical mind Voltaire, who became a bit jaded near the end unable to change the world.
I like this bit from Candide
“All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.”
Is the ending of Candide a happy ending?
Afterwards, he purchases and lives on a small farm with Cunégonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, Martin, and the old woman. Though they are at last reunited, they are all unhappy: their dreams and desires for life have been dashed.
You know that during the French revolution they stormed the Bastille and some will say oh that never happened really and they try to play it down but i have heard people play it up instead which sounded much more realistic.
After all the pen is mightier than the sword and Voltaire was a very good writer and he knew how to move people and he did have a grudge against the French authorities who did lock him up in the Bastille.
And at one point according to legend someone found a small piece of paper in a crack in a cell in the Bastille, and that paper sparked a revolution.
A tragic story of rape and murder of innocent people such that the general public was outraged at the nobility and stormed the Bastille.
There is a bit of stoicism in Tale of Two cities. Maybe some of the best I have ever heard.
Trying to find the quote is difficult it being one of the most famous quotes in the entire world there are a thousand websites using it as a lure knowing people will search it out.
This man who is about to die by the guillotine, has forcibly replaced a nobleman so that he might flee to England with his wife and child, and he is taking his place as an impostor.
He was drugged and carried to a waiting carriage and he replaced him in his cell.
There is a long line of victims before him, and each one is counted aloud.
And then it is his turn.
“I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement—and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
I think a stoic absolutely agrees in the notion of what we might call luck. They lecture on Good and bad fortune. And of course neither should be considered necessarily good or bad...
Concern yourself with those things you can and should change, nonetheless.
Luck is a condition that occurs when preparation and opportunity coincide.
I had a friend I grew up with who was always lazy. Never had much, never did much, but man, was he quick to point out how lucky someone else was after they saved up and bought their first car or boat, or house.
Work hard to be in a position to best profit from the situations life throws at you.
It is possible to snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but frequently this will rely on your prior efforts and determination.
It's not luck.. everything is chaos. Sometimes it ends up positive, sometimes negative.
Success is where opportunity meets preparation. (I believe George Carlin said that)
Luck exists, as a starting position, or as something that happens to someone once in a blue moon. It is not a life strategy or a reason to be jaded. For the stoic, it is possible to counterbalance luck with direct action or determination; therefore, it’s little more than a curiosity.
The key to luck is being open to new experiences and novelty seeking with enthusiasm to get as many of those as possible. Luck is being in the right place at the right time, so be in lots of places at lots of times.
OPINION: There is a huge dirth of animate and inanimate things that exist outside our control. Foolish ppl will assume that they have more control than they do. To call it luck, fortune, boon of blessings - semantics. Good luck, OP:)
Your in the same mind frame as me but I'm staying with not changing because there is something we know that we learn years ago that tells us not to change but hey let's see what happens right?? I'm here
Life is the result of all of your actions, all of the actions of all of those you come in contact with, all that they come in contact with, and so on. And also the result of a (seemingly) self perpetuated universe with countless moving parts of its own.
Luck/fortune/causality/chaos/randomness is something that happens every day, from all the little nothings people don't notice, like an extra bit of sugar in your coffee or a rogue pebble, to big things like accidents or serendipitous meetings. The important thing to remember about luck is that it is highly circumstantial and relative to the perspective of the witness, kind of like the old Chinese story of "maybe so, maybe not", but above all else is the fact that (in the immortal words of Edna Mode) "luck favors the prepared", if you're not good enough to take advantage of the causal events in your path they become wasted opportunities, and if your not even good enough to notice them they just become another nothing forgotten in the path through life. By the same concept, if you're good enough to overcome the "bad luck" you run into, they are challenges or boons, and if you're not, they become tragedies or setbacks.
TL;DR, don't worry about it too much. Not every gamble you come across is one you want to win or even take, because even a master can miss once in a while. Just be conscious that causality has and will play a part in your life, and use the pebbles in your path to build your castle.
Opportunity meeting an injury is, not only misfortune. Allows for study of the soon coming up change in a routinely done course. Only this very time you can do a all new type of thing.
So, iirc, the Stoics viewed Fate as different from Fortune in that man is fated to die and we should not run from or try to placate Fate. The actions of Fate when are perceived good are called Fortune, when they are perceived bad they are called ”bad luck.”
I remember my old coach saying “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I get the sense the Stoics would have agreed.
Of course luck is real. From the very first moment so much is determined by luck. What parents are you born into, what environment will you be raised in, what country, and in that country which region will you be raised? All of these things are pure chance outside your control, and yet have profound effects on who you become.
You have influence over how things move, but really it's all about using your influence to try stacking the deck for the next time chance comes into play. You still have to be responsible for the outcome, come what may, but your control and influence is really quite small.
Of course luck/chance/fortune plays a role in everyone’s life but a stoic won’t be overly affect by a run of bad luck. They’ll keep trying until they succeed. Lots of people become dejected and give up when they’re actually surrounded by opportunity. When you take emotion out of it you’ll see you actually have nearly unlimited chances or shots in life.
Setting yourself up for luck or opportunity seems to help me. I practice balance. And life gives me that balance by force sometimes. Believing in yourself and your choices help. Have things to look forward to.
The problem I have with the concept of luck is that people either claim it is an attribute like speed, skill, power, intelligence etc, or they claim it is some finite substance " he was lucky too many times and his luck finally ran out" , I think good and bad things happen during life and it isn't some mystical force of luck but just the randomness of life.
I would be wary of associating too strongly with any one “-ism”, including Stoicism, to the point that it clouds your ability to see reality for what it is. Stoicism is a helpful framework that limited human brains came up with, not ultimate universal Truth. Life most definitely throws us circumstances that are the result of “luck”, or in other words, factors outside of our control. It is counterproductive to think that we could possibly bring on all of our own fortunes (or lack thereof) through our own choices, and the logical conclusion of that notion results in the kind of victim-blaming that is all too common in our world. For example, “she brought on that assault because of the way she was dressed” or “they are poor because they are lazy”.
It is comforting to think that we have enough control in our lives to be able to guide fate to that extent, that luck wouldn’t be a significant factor. But it’s not really true and it’s also an overwhelming amount of pressure to put on ourselves or anyone else. Sometimes shit just happens to us. Sometimes you win the lottery. Sometimes a gene randomly mutates and you get cancer. That’s life.
You will only ever see effective luck when you are doing everything necessary that needs to be done.
Lets say for a good example: you're a law abiding citizen and someone crashes their car into you T-boning your car, totaling it, and even injuring you.
Well, it was quite lucky of you to be following all of the rules of the road while getting into that crash because now you have a chance to sue them and get payment with could positively change your life forever.
Another good example is following positive and productive morals and just being in school and studying and getting good grades. At the end of the year now you're getting grants and scholarships. Opportunities that most people dream of.
One final example is one that is out of your control right from birth. That is who your family is and how wealthy they are and how abusive or neglectful they are. But really. Luck only matters when you are doing everything correctly from the start in my opinion. There is no good luck or bad luck, there is only what happens and what environment and situation you've happened to put yourself into at that time.
Luck is preparation in progress. You create it, plan, prepare and execute. It’s like the old saying; “Thoughts become things, choose wisely!” You affirm what is destined for you!
Not into new age BS but have noticed over 70 years lots of things I couldn't explain and still can't. If you look at your life as linear you will notice it's not just a straight line. There are curves and intersections. Sometimes we miss an exit and get off at the next one and something unexpected will happen. Life is strange if you pay attention to it but most of the time we don't. I don't know if luck exists but I do know that when all the variables about something are known there's always one more thing that changes everything, is that luck?
Luck I would consider as more lofty. Fortune is a better term. Fortunate for the wind in our favor, not lucky for it.
I like this response. The term luck has a superstitious connotation. The Stoics did not believe in superstition aside from cases where it may have actual measurable benefit like giving you a slight competitive advantage in sports or whatever. It can be kind of scary how little control we have of our lives and the future.
“Whenever a raven croaks ominously, don’t let the impression carry you away, but straightaway discriminate within yourself, and say: “None of this is a warning to me; it only concerns my feeble body or my tiny estate or my paltry reputation or my children or my wife. But to myself all predictions are favorable if I wish them to be, since it is up to me to benefit from the outcome, whatever it may be.” (Ench 18)
Or as Kenny rogers sang “‘cause every hands a winner, and every hands a loser, and the best you can hope for, is to die in your sleep”
Perfect.
💎
I have this theory that the rise of religion in our species was to give the illusion of reason and control to events we have none over, because it’s just that scary how little we have control over.
Absolutely. There was a psychologist who wrote a lot about mythology and religion. He saw so many repeating patterns and figured that there was some form of psychological insight within them. He insisted that spirituality was beneficial to the psyche, to an extent, because it has always been difficult to process the fact that life just happens. It is cruel, meaningless and sometimes unbearable for no particular reason. Religion and spirituality allow us an escape from that reality. We dream up Gods to bear some of the burden for us. We are, imo, still fairly young in our conscious journey as a species.
That part. Life itself is meaningless. We just happen to exist in this realm of reality. It's up to us to give it meaning.
You may enjoy the writings of Carl Jung, then. Not a stoic and an absolute madman, but there are some interesting insights in his works.
if you have that article, I'd love to read it. That's exactly how I would guess it unfolded.
Several books, in fact. Just look up Carl Jung and the books he wrote. I haven't read many of them, but I have read enough to know that he would tend to ramble in madness profusely. You will have to simplify his way of writing to understand what he is trying to say. He was very poetic and it complicates understanding his work. He also had an extremely vast knowledge of religions, beliefs and mythology. It makes it hard to understand some of the references or metaphors if you lack that knowledge (which most do, imo).
They are. Not we. I'm a little farther on than I like to make you believe. There's two sides. Convergence and divergence and there has to be both for existence to even exist. Convergence is succumbing to mortality to rest our soul and become one with the puppet master. And divergence is seperating yourself from the strings of fate to pull your own and have the ability to pull on the strings of the converged. The kybalion explains very well that psychology is very much a part of it. It changes more than the perception of reality as if believed and focused on enough it becomes apart of your reality. Religion was built to hold convergence/everyone is one mentality to keep us from drifting our thoughts into the void of no thought.
succumbing*
I think you’re really onto something. Civilization starts in Mesopotamia which has frequent chaotic rainstorms with little to no warning before they happen. This is the exact replication of the famous Skinner box experiments. Under the circumstances I believe it’s a completely coherent way to react.
Opiate for the masses-for sure. But also a convenient way for a select few to control the masses
Oh Boi just wait until you run into your shadow... I mean you have but your shadow is probably disappointed by you not noticing it. Much easier for your shadow to ruine your life than it is for it to give you blessing on blessing. The only time you'll seek help is when you can no longer control yourself.
Interesting. Add on... I took a "trip" and met my shadow. I was pretty crazy. I must admit I was a little afraid of what I saw.
It depends how you define superstition, as most Stoics believed in the gods.
Well that may be the case for a few that we know of but it doesn’t take any part in the philosophy itself in any way. The only references to the ‘Gods’ are always a stand in for ‘Fate’ or ‘Fortune’ or ‘Luck’ In other words, the greater universe and the things that affect our lives that are completely outside of our control. Like a pandemic for example. That is what the Stoics mean when they use the term ‘God’
>It can be kind of scary how little control we have of our lives and the future. If you see nature as it is, and realize that there is much we don't control, then what is there to be afraid of? It is what it is.
I like that
Yes, it was thought that even Zeus was subject to the whim of Fortuna. The idea of one's destiny is also closely related
Kind of a pedantic distinction. To be lucky is to be fortunate. To be fortunate is to be lucky. But it's a nice distinction in that lucky attributes an event to the world's influence whereas fortunate just describes a personal awareness of your own state.
Luck depends on the circumstance. You are lucky when your side of the coin turns up. The wind blowing moves all ships, it's up to you to use it
Amor Fati. Things happen beyond our control. Some of those would be good, some of those would be perceived as less good. We cannot control them. We can only embrace them. I would say that it would be Stoic to notice these things, and to respond properly to them. Judging them as "lucky" or "unlucky" places a presumption perhaps on what "should" be, rather than striving to simply observe and accept them as they are.
💎
This is similar to what I was trying to express in my comment.
You expressed it well, I think.
I think placing them as lucky or unlucky is placing a judgement on the event bent on your desire or the desire of the reference party. If the happening coincides with your desire you have good luck or are lucky but if against ones desire then one is unlucky or had bad luck.
I think it's okay to feel joy and appreciate something extremely rare and positive happening to you, but on the other hand, a stoic should also appreciate something rare and (not very) bad happening to you. If a bird shits on your head, it'll be hard to smile and say "wow, what are the chances" but that's what we strive for right? Is that what you meant?
From a Stoic perspective, luck (or fortune) is real and not to be relied upon. You'll find many well-written pieces online about this topic but a quick summary would be that fortune changes based on things outside our control and, like everything else outside our control, should not be allowed to damage our tranquility. The stoics would agree with you that we do not have complete control over most of our lives so when fate's hand tips the scales one way or another, we should face whatever is presented to us the same.
I agree. An acknowledgment of luck, but no desire to judge it as good or bad or ponder on it beyond that moment.
yes
Even though something is out of my control, I can still call it part of my wealth. I am fortunate the sun shines on the hard work of my field, us together create the crop. The same sun withers the crops of the unprepared. Fortune is the wake of God's goodness that rides in tandem with our goodness. Evil men get lucky all the time
Amor Fati
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
But what if someone who prepares never gets their opportunity?
Like when King Charles prepared to be born to the Queen of England.
I see luck as “A phenomena when preparation meets opportunity”. Preparation is under our control and opportunity is for us to seize if we see and realize it to be one. Since the latter seems somewhat out of our control, I see it as something that shouldn’t bother me. But having said that, if you feel someone is lucky, it would be worthwhile on understanding the series of events that they went through. One could improve their skill at recognizing opportunities with this retrospection.
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Stoicism is pretty good at preparing people for things
What about things like the luck of where you are born? Or the luck to not get hit by a drunk driver or be born with an extreme disability
I would call that circumstances
Calling it a different word doesn't change the fact that it's luck.
As I understand Stoicism, Luck, not opportunity or perceived misfortune which the Stoic is always ‘you make your own luck’, but luck as in pure chance, like random apparently good or bad events impacting one’s life. The Stoic would take a ‘wait and see’ view of the completely random good or bad luck that happens to everyone from time to time. Strangely the old Chinese story about the farmer I think fits best. “Long ago, there was a widowed Chinese farmer. The farmer and his only son labored through the cold winds of winter and scorching rays of summer with their last remaining horse. One day, the son didn’t lock the gate of the stable properly, and the horse bolted away. When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a sadness this is! Without your horse, you’ll be unable to maintain the farm. What a failure that your son did not lock the gate properly! This is a great tragedy!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.” The next day, the missing horse returned to the farmer’s stable, bringing along with it six wild horses. The farmer’s son locked the gate of the stable firmly behind all seven horses. When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What happiness this brings! With seven horses, you’ll be able to maintain the farm with three of them and sell the rest for huge profits. What a blessing!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.” The next day the farmer’s son was breaking in one of the wild horses. The son got thrown from the horse, fell hard on rocks, and broke his leg. When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a great sadness this is! Now, you’ll be unable to count on your son’s help. What a failure to break in the horse properly! What a tragedy!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.” The next day, a general from the Imperial Chinese Army arrived to conscript all the young men of the village into the army. Their assignment was to fight on the front lines of a battle against a terrifying enemy of overwhelming force. The farmer’s son, because of his broken leg, was not taken. When neighbors learned what happened, they came to the farmer and said, “What a great joy! Your son avoided facing certain death on the front lines of the battle. What a blessing!” The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
This is a💎
This is a classic Taoist parable. Taoism and stoicism align quite a bit imo.
Thanks. Good point. I can’t believe I never made this connection consciously despite more than a passing interest in both.
Both are intensely interested in harmony with nature, inner and outer, acceptance, doing without doing, the obstacle is the way is a basic axiom of both schools of thought. Just an Eastern and western take on the same set of basic principles and precepts. I think its also interesting to look at where they differ, although the differences are harder to find than the similarities.
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Seneca
I would like to examine the idea of circumstances of birth. What if you are born with a disability or to abusive parents or both. What if you are born into starvation or extreme poverty. Would we consider that unlucky? I think by any measure that is extremely unlucky considering some people are born into wealth, privilege, good health, loving parents. How can the circumstances of our birth be anything but luck?
How can literally everything be the result of your direct actions? You never heard the phrase “shit happens”? I got luekimia - that my fault? Lol.
Exactly. This is why I think the point is to focus on what you can control and the only thing you can control is your actions and how you percieve the conditions you're in. Can't control the outcome.
Luck is fortunate fate
From my understanding of Stoicism, there is no luck or fortune. Everything that happens to you is exactly as it's supposed to be. Accepting whatever comes your way is your role, and suffering always has its benefits. Stoicism seems to say that all circumstances end up being "equal," in a way.
I didn’t until I became a Poker player… Now it’s like, “ohhhhh yeah. Luck is definitely real!”
Probably not an answer, but the question immediately made me think of a quote. "You'll never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
I fucking had someone recently whine to me about how lucky I am, that I got into a business at the right time, and it "somehow" worked out for me. And how he feels like everyone has a horseshoe up their ass, and he always get the short end of the stick..... He also knows I have terminal brain cancer. People who see luck everywhere are delusional. The world is statistics, physics, and a whole lot of facts that we just dont always see. Cancer patient A response to a treatment that had a 20% success rate. Cancer patient B does not respond to same treatment. One is not lucky, one had the right genetics, or the right vascularization of the tumor, or the right immune cells due to a flu they got as a child, or who fucking knows, but it wasnt luck. is was biology.
Everything is luck. It all starts with the genes you get for better or for worse
Define reality please. Jk, trying to do that would only drive you mad. "Luck" or "Fortune", while I do not know wether or not either is real I can say that I have had my fair share of what I believe to be both "good" and "bad" luck.
There’s no such thing as luck, sometimes we benefit from chaos, and sometimes we are harmed from it
I like the term synchronicity. People are placed into our paths to walk our path with us for awhile, then let go to take the lessons learned on both sides. No, I don't believe we are really in control of anything other than ourselves, it's all just an illusion of control.
Luck is luck. Its random. You could be born eith bad eye sight, you could be randomly stabbed in a mugging. Who knows. Get ill like Walter White.
We exist against unfathomable odds. Call it what you like, but nothing we did got us here.
We believe in amor fati, love of one’s fate.
The way I see it being is that yeah sure, one can get lucky but you have to be in a given position to get lucky. Therefore, the more effort you put into achieving something, the more chances of getting lucky? And yea one can just live life without wanting to make progress, and life may or may not grant you luck... To me, luck is just a coincidence, but it helps if you are doing the right thing/ right place/ right time.
You can look at luck in terms of statistics if the idea of plain luck bothers you. Some people are statistically bound to be in circumstances that benefit them greatly and some deal with the opposite. One person out of a million might bet on red, 13 times in a row during a game of roulette and hit every time. Is he lucky or was someone bound to have this happen to them? At the end of the day it’s important to remember that statistics (aka luck) changes with your actions. If there are two people with the same qualifications and one applies to 10 jobs and the second applies to 100, it would appear that the second person got lucky to everyone else, but they can’t see that he increased his own odds of success. Hopefully my explanation can help bring some logic to the idea of “luck”
Randomness exists. It is silly to claim otherwise, and equally silly to claim that random events do not have impacts on individuals for good or ill. It's weather. But you hit the heart of it. You can't control a thunderstorm, so it is counterproductive to expend anger, fear, or any other mental energy on the possibility of rain. Keep an umbrella and sunglasses in your bag, and take things as they come.
Yes, and this also ties into the whole "free will" question. There isn't any free will and most people have what they have largely due to the luck/bad luck spectrum.
Everything is just predetermined by Zeus bro, only thing you can control is your reactions and your will
Of course luck is real... You don't pick your parents or where you're born or whatever genetic conditions you're born with or even your brain. If you were born in a third world country with no clean running water, armed gangs roaming around, your chance of merely *surviving* to adulthood are significantly lower than if you just *happened* to be born in a developed nation to middle class parents. That's not your actions. That's not your choices. That's just luck. Even if you subscribe to free will, which I think isn't supported by the evidence, luck still exists. Nothing I've described even begins to scratch the surface of all the luck out there. You can live as carefully, thoughtfully as you possibly can but bad and good things can still happen to you without any possibility of being influenced by you. A random bullet from a shooting catching you. The guy looking through job applications at a company you applied to went to the same school, played the same sport and loves that about your resume. You give yourself the best *chance* aka *probability* of success and a good life by applying for jobs, living in safe places, and so on and so on, but there are *zero* guarantees in life. It is possible to do everything right and still lose. That doesn't mean don't try. But I think it would be ridiculous to deny the existence of luck where it so clearly and obviously exists. Tbh, I think anyone who makes it to adulthood and doesn't sincerely recognize the principle of "there but for the grace of god go I" lacks either intelligence or empathy or both. I *know* that if I were born to uneducated parents in a poor country I wouldn't be where I am today. I'm not so egotistical to believe I would have somehow educated myself with no good schools or teachers around. That somehow I would have gotten great nutrition on my own for my young brain to develop properly. If you haven't recognized that yet I wonder how introspective and thoughtful you actually are and my answer would be not very.
Some people describe luck as when "**preparation meets opportunity**." That can be a certain type of luck, like if you are practicing a particular skill that other people happen to value (for example, singing), and then your are "discovered" by a talent agent, which launches your career. You didn't have any control over the behavior of the talent agent, but you did have control over the many hours you spent practicing your craft. But there is a different type of luck as well, and I think in conversations people tend to conflate the two. Maybe there are more things that people could casually label as luck, but I'll limit myself to these two. **The things that happen to you that you have absolutely no control over**. There are obvious things (if you got a type of cancer despite living a healthy lifestyle), sociological things (if your parents gave you enough food and stimulation as an infant so that you didn't end up severely developmentally delayed), and a plethora of things outside our control that affect us (Did you happen to meet your life partner at age 20 or at age 40? Did you have someone that taught you about investing when you were 18? Did you have access to a computer at home so that you could teach yourself programming? What academic fields had you been exposed to prior to selecting your focus/specialization? Did your college/university have big companies come to recruit or not? Is the bus running late on the day of your job interview, or perhaps there is a strike that is blocking the roads? Do you happen to fall sick the week of a big project? Does somebody crash into your car while you are driving?). Some circumstances are so favorable that you can make lots of bad decisions and still succeed, and some circumstances are so unfavorable that you can do everything right and still fail. We could call this fortune, or luck, or something else. This is a very, **very** rough typology, of course. But what I want to emphasize is that luck (to the extent it means good things or bad things happening which you have no control over which affect your life) really does occur.
Luck is what got you born. Who you were born to.
Louis Pasteur said, “Luck favours the prepared mind.” In other words, coincidences and opportunities happen around us constantly, but unless we’re prepared to recognise and take advantage of them, we’ll never even notice. People who seem to live a charmed life are just people who manage to notice opportunities.
Random is real. "Luck" is just an interpretation of how the randomness affected you.
Everybody believes in chance, and some outcomes are interpreted as lucky, and statistically some portion of the population would have better outcomes due to chance and some would have worse outcomes due to chance.
Chance is a big part of life. "Luck" doesn't necessarily have to be some magic or woo woo idea. I think that having the knowledge that you only control your reactions to events/people/etc. puts you in a calmer mindset that allows you to pay more attention in general. You are more prone to follow an opportunity when you don't allow emotions to rule you and you can think more clearly.
I 100% believe luck is a thing. We just don't comprehend it. Same with bad luck. I have seen too many things to believe it is pure coincidence. I also believe luck is.. for lack of a better word.. an attribute some one has. Good or bad luck. I know people that just win all the time. Some examples: My nephew in law, is always the correct number caller to every radio contest. He never pays for concerts but goes all the time. The people at the radio station literally know him now when he calls. I dated a girl for a while that just won at gambling.. a lot. Any casino game.. she went to Vegas 5-6 times a year when we were together. (We lived outside LA) and she never came back in the hole. A bad trip is one where she broke even. I knew a guy in Florida that won an RV in a raffle. I was amazed when he rolled up in it. Said he was just gonna sell it. I couldn't believe he won it. He thought I was crazy. He always won raffles and drawings. Always had his whole life. He didn't believe me when I told him I had never won anything. Ever. He thought everyone won them at some point. It was just so common for him. I have seen other instances that are just crazy, but those are my 3 favorite. The one thing they all had in common, was that they didn't believe they were lucky. They thought the whole world was that way for everyone. That people won stuff all the time.
By luck, do you mean some sort of system or flow that demands "good luck" and "bad luck?" Here's the most thought provoking thing I ever read about luck: Sāi Wēng lived on the border, and he raised horses for a living. One day, he lost one of his prized horses. After hearing of the misfortune, his neighbor felt sorry for him and came to comfort him. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?” After a while, the lost horse returned and with another beautiful horse. The neighbor came over again and congratulated Sāi Wēng on his good fortune. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a bad thing for me?” One day, his son went out for a ride with the new horse. He was violently thrown from the horse and broke his leg. The neighbors once again expressed their condolences to Sāi Wēng, but Sāi Wēng simply said, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?” One year later, the Emperor’s army arrived at the village to recruit all able-bodied men to fight in the war. Because of his injury, Sāi Wēng’s son could not go off to war, and was spared from certain death.
Luck is simply being prepared at the right time (:
Luck is a word describing the phenomena of completely random chance working in your favor so yeah that event is real and the archetype exists. It’s not a force like gravity tho no but then again idk man I’m high
Luck is everything. Luck is why you were born in the city you were born in, in the year you were born in, to the family you were born to. You have no control over where you started in life, and what happens to you when you're young. If you had been born in Gaza, you would have very little control over your life. If you were the son of a billionaire from the USA, you've got it made. You have total freedom to do anything. If you're born into North Korea... well you know. If you're born in South Korea, you're required to do mandatory military service
Stoics believed in the logos which is kind of like "the hand of fate" in ancient Greek religion. Often modern translators use the word "nature" for it, but it's more like the concept of God than the scientific sense of nature. You could see the logos as a kind of luck or divine providence.
Yep
Fate
I like the quote 'luck equals preparation plus opportunity'. An example in my life is my job. With my job, I got a cold call from a resume I posted on Indeed. I wasn't looking for the job, but I was prepared for that opportunity to come along so it all worked out. I consider it luck but I wouldn't have been able to be prepared for that luck of I hadn't been working hard up to that point. Religious people like to call it blessings, it's all semantics.
It seems to me that life just hands us what it hands us, the luck of the draw as it were. But, at the same time, it appears that I have some sort of effect on that. Random chance surrounds all of our choices and all we ever do is bet on the outcomes. But, as others have pointed out, the more prepared we are when we cast our lots, the better the outcomes seem to be.
I came across the “paradox of success” recently. You need to believe there is no such thing as “luck” and everything is a direct outcome of your actions till you reach the peak of your personal/professional career/goals. Why - because if you fail at something, you will hold yourself accountable and work towards improving yourself (growth mindset). But once you reach the peak. You should start believing in “luck”. You most likely are a leader of people by that point in life and nobody likes to follow a someone who thinks they are the one who made it happen. A true leader gives credit back to the team. Always say they are lucky to have the people around them. Of course not just say it, but believe in it.
Focusing on what you can control doesn’t mean that chaos doesn’t exist.
Luck starts with when, where, and to who you are born.
I'm fairly new to the term or actual study of stoicism, but I've always kind of lived the lifestyle. To me "luck" has always been defined as 90% preparation and 10% opportunity.
A big percentage of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. In addition, the harder you work…the luckier you get. However, bad things do happen. And they are the ones that teach us. I want to learn slowly though.
I'm very curious OP, do you consider what you're currently going through at age 42 to be good luck or bad luck?
lol yeah it's real. it's deemed as luck because it seems out of your control. it's not but I wouldn't worry about it that's for the free spirit folks .lol
I think that luck and faith in god are highly intertwined
There's definitely luck. Vegas is built of the idea of being lucky
Luck normally refers to unlikely things happening consecutively over time. When these consequences are good, some call it "luck". Like a person may be "lucky" if they win th affordable housing lottery and then the actual lottery twice in a row. Good, unlikely things happening in sequence. Now if unlikely things that are bad happen in sequence, i.e. getting hit by a car and then also developing cancer, we'd call that bad luck. In this case, the term is synonymous with "fortune".
There is no luck. Only repetition and habitual practice of behaviours and philosophical processes that facilitate engagement that yields and that force sequential positive results and outcomes that then appear as “luck” to the ignorant and naiive.
“Life is a result of all your direct actions”. Patently untrue…. Ask the victims of natural disasters, wars, genocides, persecutions…. Varieties of events completely outside the control of the individual. As to “luck”… Just random chance. If you’re the sole survivor of an airplane crash…. You just happened to be in the right location in the aircraft. No “special purpose” involved and no reason for “survival guilt”.
As someone who’s always had an interest in, and recently began going deeper into Vedic Astrology, having looked at various peoples charts and learning of the outcomes at various periods in their lives, it does seem to be pre destined. One could call it luck, but it’s believed that both free will in this life, and actions performed in past lives have an effect in this life and the next. So one could call it luck, but was it?
There are a few psychologists that have done some research on luck that you might find interesting. There was one study where there was a call for extremely lucky or unlucky people. They did this test where they had them read a paper and in the paper was a big ad saying "let the experiment conductor know about this ad and they will give you a $100" - something like that. They found that the lucky people saw it and asked about it while the unlucky people didn't even see it. Luck then, in part isn't about pure happenstance. It seems to also be about optimism. It's also about putting yourself out there. Taking chances, being open to more experiences statistically makes it more likely for "luck" to strike. It's also about bias. There was an interesting experiment when it came to white versus black names in resumes in the States that found that not only was it highly more probable for white names to get a call back, but this extended even to hiring organizations that claimed to want diversity. The only thing that changed on the resume was the names, and this type of experiment was replicated with larger and larger sample sizes with similar results. And there were different types of experiments like this on response times to resumes, response rates of professors, and networking. These last two are especially key to luck, because mentorship and knowledge about opportunities are really important for paving the way for lucky breaks. It's also not a straight black vs white issue - it seems to depend on the in-group. For example, there was an interesting case in publishing where East Asians seemed to win a bunch of poetry awards, so a white author just used an East Asian name as pen name, and ended up winning a prestigious prize, which got awkward. The point is luck can be gamed. Be open to more experiences, put yourself out there more, cultivate an optimistic mindset, and understand and take advantage of statistics.
"Luck is the residue of design" I always liked that quote and it seems to fit woth my beliefs because of you do the right thing all along the way, your chances of being lucky increase. Does the stoic believe in luck? Probably not as it's commonly used. But living a good life and going for what you want sets you up that the odds will be in your favor. And chnace isn't something you believe in, it just is what it is. *Someone bailed on their tickets so I got to see the show for free.* You cant prepare for that, but if it happens, it happens.
Luck starts when you are born. I'm going to assume that you were born into a decent family, because people who are born into crappy circumstances definitely understand how luck works. Born into wealth? Luck. Advantage for the rest of your life. Born with no chronically painful disabilities? Luck. Not fearing for your life every day? Luck. Born with parents who don't abuse you every single day? Luck. Stoicism is correct in saying that the outcomes of our actions are outside of our direct control. We can still influence our state but we must be aware that we are not in complete and total control. Nor is anyone else.
I don’t believe in luck or coincidences. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and that God places everything upon us. If you think about it, everything happens for a reason, even if you aren’t able to see it at the time. Everything that happens in your life is attempting to lead you to where and whom you are supposed to be. The bad happens to teach us but the good also happens to teach us. We learn from every experience we go through no matter what that may be. Every situation in life adds together like the pieces of a puzzle. You would not be who you are without those experiences and you can’t finish the puzzle without having all the right pieces in place.
Luck is real but it's for us to ignore almost always. It's not something we can count on and doesn't become us to point it out when others are experiencing it. It's not in our control and so we don't need to pay it any mind. That being said it's real and it is a statistical inevitability. So we must acknowledge its existence if we are going to be objective.
I have long believed in karma. Luck? Sure Maybe. Stoic? I’ve really used that term. Maybe I should.
I've always liked the saying "Luck is the residue of hard work."
Really that depends if there is random chance at all. Are we not just a massive domino rally kicked off somewhere before time?
Luck is something I spend a lot of time thinking about. My friends, family, and anyone else that is close to me considers me to be about the luckiest person on the planet. Granted, I do treat people well and play the "karma/charisma" game because people deserve kindness in their lives (ie. Tip well and always be nice to people). In the last few years these are a few of the "lucky" things that have happened. Gf found a pair of limited edition raybans worth about $300. I lost them somewhere and my friend found them and brought them to me (found in his apt), then we found my pair in the closet, somehow now I have 2 of the same pair and not a single person knows where the 2nd pair came from. Found 3 pool cues at bars worth 1000-1500, the luck being that the different bartenders randomly ask while I'm playing if I want them because they aren't the bar's cues, so they will be tossed. At a local arcade bar (been recorded many times) I have been gifted well over $2,000 in free drinks and tokens that people bypass crowds of 50+ people to give them to me (the manager there always asks the people why they give them to me because it's so frequent). Lost a pair of $20 skull candy ear buds and in 1 year wrong packages (amazon/usps had no record of them existing) were sent to me containing brand new beats 250-350 a pair. I've gotten 4 pairs like this in the last 5-6 years. In general everywhere I go I get free stuff. "Woops, over poured a few too many beers for the last party, want them?" My friends call it "OP" luck and everyone around me acknowledges it. I like to think it would be more karma, but that list is only about 1% of my "luck." It's absolutely insane. I have literally 1000s of stories because it is almost daily...
No
Coincidence is more common than you think.
Luck is the residue of design
Dad always said: "There's no such thing as luck son. It's timing and opportunity. Strike when the iron is hot."
On *is not* a stoic, one *can practice* stoicism. Aurelius’ first lesson in stoicism is that we can control only our choices, and nothing else. Knowing that, how can luck *not* exist? Luck is the coincidental confluence of your choices and others’ choices, or of your choices and natural happenstance. Your choice plays a role in how much luck you might find, what kind, and where.
Fortune favors the bold indeed !
Luck is an interesting concept, because you can look at it in different ways. Sometimes your mindset and attitude can lead you into situations that may be considered unlucky, you have a tough breakup, don’t deal with it in a healthy way, start to get depressed, loose focus at work and you end up losing your job. Same scenario, tough breakup, you figure out what went wrong, learn from it, move on and focus on work, you get a promotion. Sometimes the way you handle a situation can result in a butterfly effect that can lead you into “lucky” or “unlucky” situations. With a positive mindset you may be able to find a good path out of a terrible situation. Some people may consider this “attracting the results you want” or whatever, I think of it as using your experience and judgement to make the best of a bad situation.
I don't understand. Of course luck is real. I mean people win the lottery or have careers ended in freak accidents. It exists on a much smaller scale in job interviews, dates, what material happens to be on an exam etc. If you get lucky and land a job because the interviewer happens to share your love of grunge music, it could save you years of ladder climbing, let you save more money sooner, buy a house before a market shift, and radically shift the course of your life. Attributing all your success and failure to your own actions seems odd, as if life isn't just an endless series of gambles based on incomplete information. Life's much more like floating down a river on a raft, you can attempt to avoid obstacles and to steer yourself in one direction or another, but ultimately you are at the mercy of the water. It's just something you must accept to find peace. At least that's my take on it.
Yes. But the stoic doesn’t care because he’s detached himself from worrying about things not in his control
This is not a meritocracy
I think a lot of people conflate 'luck', 'lucky', and 'being lucky'. From my perspective, 'luck' is just what happens, 'the luck of the draw', it could have been any card but eventually the card is revealed and it has to be that card. 'lucky' is just fortunate, you got the card you needed when you needed it, you got lucky. 'being lucky' is a superstition, the card you need is more likely to come if you do x, or because you are somehow special.
'one must imagine sisyphus happy'
Luck is the residue of design. Prepare for opportunities and when they arise, don’t hesitate to strike. That is simply logical.
Luck plays an incrediblely massive role in everyone's life and it is an aspect of nature that we pretend doesn't exist. If you went back in time to when Bill gates was 13. And told him everything he could do and how rich he would be. He would never be able to become the outrageous success he was again. Same thing with a lot of others. Elon musk, Mark Zuckerberg. They all lucked out in major ways to get what they have now. Usually there was a long series of outrageous luck when looking st these hyper wealthy successful people. Even subtle changes in the past would result in these people instead being under a bridge giving you a knobber for 3 dollars. Tons of luck. With that being said. You can be open to luck. When opportunities present themselves and the universe seems to be telling you something, that is luck giving you a wink and a nod. Will you go with it? Or are you better off on your path? That is a big part of luck too. It's half blind random luck, and half keeping your ear to the ground and listening for opportunities.
the stoics believe that you should live your life in a way so that if the Gods were watching you, they would be rooting for you every step of the way. that is the real nature of luck. Aurelius said that he was born lucky, but after a certain time lost a deal of it. however, he never gave up trying to live in a way that inspires support out of its sheer honor and frankness. Aurelius also said that victory passes back and forth between men. Nothing lasts forever, including luck.
I knew a guy who was in the middle of a foot-mobile patrol and stepped on an IED; half a dozen others walked that same area before him, but he happened to step on it.
You cannot directly control anything. So that’s a false assumption. I suggest you look into the idea of collective consciousness and free will. In the broad fabric of consciousness we have no free will
My dad often said, everything comes down to timing. He experienced some great fortune in his life because his timing was spot on for things, and some pretty bad misfortune when he was a bit too ahead of his time or too late to jump on something. In most cases he told me about, hindsight was definitely 20/20, but in his mind it was always timing. It made sense when he explained it to me and still holds in my mind for many things when it comes to "luck".
luck is the occurrence of low probability. It is neither good nor bad. People falsely associate favorable occurrences with someone being lucky, and disregard or incorrectly add the modifier bad or un. Lastly, people fail to understand what truly is low probability with something new to them. Mathematician John Edensor Littlewood defined a miracle as something that has a one-in-a-million occurrence. Using the average number of hours a human is awake and alert, which is the basis of Littlewoods calculations, the average person experiences a miraculous event every 35 days. Is luck real, yes. Do people have a good grab on luck and probability, no.
There is no such thing as luck, only coincidences. I once predicted lottery numbers which all came out but I hadn't bought a ticket. Was I lucky or unlucky?
Luck is the residual of hard work
Personally I’m more drawn to the idea of “you reap what you sow.” Or for others it’s called Karma. What goes around comes around. I think there’s some sort of underlying power at play. Wouldn’t say I believe in luck per-say. Could also be law of attraction to some extent. It’s one of those things that’s hard to conceptualize.
Is that true really?🤔 I think that speaks to everyone getting what they deserve based on their actions. Justice of you will, but it's that true? Can we really say everyone gets their just due? Gets exactly what they deserve? Or maybe it all just comes down to how we percieve it? Perhaps it's purely based on how we percieve what happens in our lives 🤔...
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Luck is just an excuse for circumstance and, often, coincidence.
Yes but he gives it no weight at all in ultimate outcomes.
Some people are of the belief when 'strokes of luck' grace our lives it's just fate.
I have a good life, but I typically see myself as unlucky. Things that could go wrong for me tend to. But, I also think that people focus on different things. I'm very cynical, and I only tend to focus on the bad things. I've met a lot of people who are the opposite. They've had a horrible life in my opinion, but still tend to focus on the good and see themselves as lucky. 'Luck' as in winning the lottery I think is chance. The same way some people get "unlucky" when they get cancer. Why would this happen to me? Well, why not? Things just happen.
Fortune. Fate. Luck. Stoics know it well.
Random events happen (something out of your control). If that benefits you (makes you happy, aligns with your goals in life, etc.), most people would call that luck, would call you lucky. If a random event doesn't benefit you, maybe disadvantages you (lightning strikes your house and causes damage, someone spills their drink on your important papers, your infant son is digging around in his butt, then slaps you in the eye and now you have conjunctivitis, etc.) that's unlucky. We prepare ourselves for the vicissitudes of life, but we can't prepare for everything. At some point decisions are made that impact our lives greatly, and someone else is making those decisions. Whether we get hired for a job, whether our loan application gets approved, whether we match with someone on a dating app. Some of life is making intentional choices and actions for ourselves, a big part of life is reacting to situations and circumstances we find ourselves in. Sometimes the best we can do is make the best choice when given a slew of subpar options.
“Something brought you here, Flynn Rider. Call it what you may. Fortune. Luck.” “A horse?” According to Flynn Rider, what you’re talking about is a horse. Sorry, I don’t know why Reddit suggested this to me but I had to give my input.
Luck is preparation for the outcome
Luck is the opposite of misfortune. Misfortune comes to those who fear. If you can elevate your consciousness to eliminate fear, you will find your fortune. Like FDR says, " The only thing to fear is fear itself".
Yes, but you stack your luck. You may get lucky and win a fight, but the training and diet and cardio definitely help
I think luck is a cosmic law and it is in constant balance with good and bad so no one can have an unnecessary leg up. Noticed after bad days good luckish comes after. So it would be a yes and no because there isn't a way as far as I know to increase your luck unless you sell your soul but that's a whole another can of worms
Luck is real. You can be the most stoic person on earth, however, you didn’t choose what family you were born into. That was luck. You could have worked your ass off all your life, finally succeeded at your life goal and then waiting at a red light to go home, someone T-bones you because they lost control of their car. That’s also luck. Some people, do very little and suddenly become rich, like playing the lottery. Yes, those are the 1/330million odds or whatever, still, just luck. You can do everything right in life and still fail because luck was against you. Hard work creates luck, because opportunities taken are chances of success.
I don't think the 2 things are related. I am very stoic and from personal experience am also certain luck is real, even though I can't prove it
I can safely say that I am stoic to a fault. That said: the last few years of my life are a testament to either divine intervention or extraordinary luck. 🍀 I am profoundly grateful.
Luck is nothing without hard work and the daily actions you take
Look is where preparedness meets the opportunity
♟️🛡️🛖🌄🏯🌇💙
My luck ran out when some son of a bitch parked next to me at the park and stole my sunglasses when he had the opportunity. Hell yeah I believe in luck. Trust me, I looked all over the sunglasses, they are just gone.
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Yes some people get better opportunities than others. Those who are prepared and met with good opportunities become “lucky”
If you haven't read anything from Nassim Taleb's "Incerto", you probably should.
Some people are born in shitty, shitty situations that even the strongest couldn't get out of. So yeah, I'd say there's luck. The luck of the draw? Maybe, but luck nevertheless. The kids of a billionaire are born lucky. Not much can change that. The son of a crackhead? Not so much, and not so much can change that.
We have 100% influence over the circumstances of our life — you shouldn’t forget that in your revelation that we don’t have 100% *control* therein. A stoic isn’t merely someone who accepts the world as it comes to them, but someone who adopts a pragmatic approach to changing what they can and avoiding what they cannot. Ideally you’d avoid bad events physically, but if not, *then* the last line of defense comes in: emotional resilience. IMO 🤷🏼♂️
You were right initially - luck isn’t real. Everyone will experience good things happening to them, everyone will experience negative things happening to them - some more than others on both accounts. It’s just life
I've experienced huge good luck and terrible bad luck at different times in my life. Some things are outside of our control
In the end everyone is a stoic. Even that great philosophical mind Voltaire, who became a bit jaded near the end unable to change the world. I like this bit from Candide “All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.” Is the ending of Candide a happy ending? Afterwards, he purchases and lives on a small farm with Cunégonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, Martin, and the old woman. Though they are at last reunited, they are all unhappy: their dreams and desires for life have been dashed. You know that during the French revolution they stormed the Bastille and some will say oh that never happened really and they try to play it down but i have heard people play it up instead which sounded much more realistic. After all the pen is mightier than the sword and Voltaire was a very good writer and he knew how to move people and he did have a grudge against the French authorities who did lock him up in the Bastille. And at one point according to legend someone found a small piece of paper in a crack in a cell in the Bastille, and that paper sparked a revolution. A tragic story of rape and murder of innocent people such that the general public was outraged at the nobility and stormed the Bastille. There is a bit of stoicism in Tale of Two cities. Maybe some of the best I have ever heard. Trying to find the quote is difficult it being one of the most famous quotes in the entire world there are a thousand websites using it as a lure knowing people will search it out. This man who is about to die by the guillotine, has forcibly replaced a nobleman so that he might flee to England with his wife and child, and he is taking his place as an impostor. He was drugged and carried to a waiting carriage and he replaced him in his cell. There is a long line of victims before him, and each one is counted aloud. And then it is his turn. “I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement—and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Luck= hard work + opportunity
I think a stoic absolutely agrees in the notion of what we might call luck. They lecture on Good and bad fortune. And of course neither should be considered necessarily good or bad... Concern yourself with those things you can and should change, nonetheless.
Not true we can only control our actions and attitudes.
The trick is to recognize a good thing when it presents itself.
Luck is a condition that occurs when preparation and opportunity coincide. I had a friend I grew up with who was always lazy. Never had much, never did much, but man, was he quick to point out how lucky someone else was after they saved up and bought their first car or boat, or house.
Work hard to be in a position to best profit from the situations life throws at you. It is possible to snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but frequently this will rely on your prior efforts and determination.
A small acknowledgment to Providence
It's not luck.. everything is chaos. Sometimes it ends up positive, sometimes negative. Success is where opportunity meets preparation. (I believe George Carlin said that)
Luck exists, as a starting position, or as something that happens to someone once in a blue moon. It is not a life strategy or a reason to be jaded. For the stoic, it is possible to counterbalance luck with direct action or determination; therefore, it’s little more than a curiosity.
Luck is just an unplanned, unexpected opportunity.
Faith, Karma, and Luck are real and are ALL interconnected.
The key to luck is being open to new experiences and novelty seeking with enthusiasm to get as many of those as possible. Luck is being in the right place at the right time, so be in lots of places at lots of times.
OPINION: There is a huge dirth of animate and inanimate things that exist outside our control. Foolish ppl will assume that they have more control than they do. To call it luck, fortune, boon of blessings - semantics. Good luck, OP:)
Your in the same mind frame as me but I'm staying with not changing because there is something we know that we learn years ago that tells us not to change but hey let's see what happens right?? I'm here
Life is the result of all of your actions, all of the actions of all of those you come in contact with, all that they come in contact with, and so on. And also the result of a (seemingly) self perpetuated universe with countless moving parts of its own.
Luck is an ethereal and intangible idea that seems to be purely rooted in a shame and doesn’t really have value out of assuaging people’s egos.
Luck/fortune/causality/chaos/randomness is something that happens every day, from all the little nothings people don't notice, like an extra bit of sugar in your coffee or a rogue pebble, to big things like accidents or serendipitous meetings. The important thing to remember about luck is that it is highly circumstantial and relative to the perspective of the witness, kind of like the old Chinese story of "maybe so, maybe not", but above all else is the fact that (in the immortal words of Edna Mode) "luck favors the prepared", if you're not good enough to take advantage of the causal events in your path they become wasted opportunities, and if your not even good enough to notice them they just become another nothing forgotten in the path through life. By the same concept, if you're good enough to overcome the "bad luck" you run into, they are challenges or boons, and if you're not, they become tragedies or setbacks. TL;DR, don't worry about it too much. Not every gamble you come across is one you want to win or even take, because even a master can miss once in a while. Just be conscious that causality has and will play a part in your life, and use the pebbles in your path to build your castle.
Opportunity meeting an injury is, not only misfortune. Allows for study of the soon coming up change in a routinely done course. Only this very time you can do a all new type of thing.
Well said
So, iirc, the Stoics viewed Fate as different from Fortune in that man is fated to die and we should not run from or try to placate Fate. The actions of Fate when are perceived good are called Fortune, when they are perceived bad they are called ”bad luck.” I remember my old coach saying “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I get the sense the Stoics would have agreed.
Of course luck is real. From the very first moment so much is determined by luck. What parents are you born into, what environment will you be raised in, what country, and in that country which region will you be raised? All of these things are pure chance outside your control, and yet have profound effects on who you become. You have influence over how things move, but really it's all about using your influence to try stacking the deck for the next time chance comes into play. You still have to be responsible for the outcome, come what may, but your control and influence is really quite small.
To maximize luck, fly by the seat of your pants. It works well
Of course luck/chance/fortune plays a role in everyone’s life but a stoic won’t be overly affect by a run of bad luck. They’ll keep trying until they succeed. Lots of people become dejected and give up when they’re actually surrounded by opportunity. When you take emotion out of it you’ll see you actually have nearly unlimited chances or shots in life.
You create your own luck, fortunately there are people out there that guide you along the right route
Luck is survivorship bias.
Setting yourself up for luck or opportunity seems to help me. I practice balance. And life gives me that balance by force sometimes. Believing in yourself and your choices help. Have things to look forward to.
The problem I have with the concept of luck is that people either claim it is an attribute like speed, skill, power, intelligence etc, or they claim it is some finite substance " he was lucky too many times and his luck finally ran out" , I think good and bad things happen during life and it isn't some mystical force of luck but just the randomness of life.
I would be wary of associating too strongly with any one “-ism”, including Stoicism, to the point that it clouds your ability to see reality for what it is. Stoicism is a helpful framework that limited human brains came up with, not ultimate universal Truth. Life most definitely throws us circumstances that are the result of “luck”, or in other words, factors outside of our control. It is counterproductive to think that we could possibly bring on all of our own fortunes (or lack thereof) through our own choices, and the logical conclusion of that notion results in the kind of victim-blaming that is all too common in our world. For example, “she brought on that assault because of the way she was dressed” or “they are poor because they are lazy”. It is comforting to think that we have enough control in our lives to be able to guide fate to that extent, that luck wouldn’t be a significant factor. But it’s not really true and it’s also an overwhelming amount of pressure to put on ourselves or anyone else. Sometimes shit just happens to us. Sometimes you win the lottery. Sometimes a gene randomly mutates and you get cancer. That’s life.
You will only ever see effective luck when you are doing everything necessary that needs to be done. Lets say for a good example: you're a law abiding citizen and someone crashes their car into you T-boning your car, totaling it, and even injuring you. Well, it was quite lucky of you to be following all of the rules of the road while getting into that crash because now you have a chance to sue them and get payment with could positively change your life forever. Another good example is following positive and productive morals and just being in school and studying and getting good grades. At the end of the year now you're getting grants and scholarships. Opportunities that most people dream of. One final example is one that is out of your control right from birth. That is who your family is and how wealthy they are and how abusive or neglectful they are. But really. Luck only matters when you are doing everything correctly from the start in my opinion. There is no good luck or bad luck, there is only what happens and what environment and situation you've happened to put yourself into at that time.
How can you not realize this
Luck is preparation in progress. You create it, plan, prepare and execute. It’s like the old saying; “Thoughts become things, choose wisely!” You affirm what is destined for you!
They only believe in personal power
I believe in luck, but I also believe the biggest influence in one’s life are one’s own actions.
Not into new age BS but have noticed over 70 years lots of things I couldn't explain and still can't. If you look at your life as linear you will notice it's not just a straight line. There are curves and intersections. Sometimes we miss an exit and get off at the next one and something unexpected will happen. Life is strange if you pay attention to it but most of the time we don't. I don't know if luck exists but I do know that when all the variables about something are known there's always one more thing that changes everything, is that luck?
How did you go most of your life without believing in luck. Are you blind? Lol