Comments on: Feeling Lucky?

By: don

don — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:50:27 +0000

excellent post and spot on. You can’t fight with reality as you will lose and need to indeed go with the flow and be open to what is happening. well said.

By: Pam Drake

Pam Drake — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:23:19 +0000

While I agree at a surface level, let’s be careful not to over apply or over simplify. Too often, I see people applying the converse idea — that if someone isn’t “lucky” that they are wrong/at fault/etc. While we may want to believe that all “luck” can be changed with the right attitude, there simply isn’t enough fact based evidence to support that conclusion. The study cited uses retrospective reporting — where the outcome is known from the outset and past history is reviewed to discover possible differences in attitude or behavior. That MIGHT explain the differences between the groups. But it is a flawed idea to conclude that there was no difference between the groups to start with. What if the people who perceived themselves as not being lucky were born with a genetically lower level of the brain chemicals that support attention and mood? If we really want to draw conclusions, we need to look at the full picture. For instance, studying identical twins who are raised apart. For identical twins, their biology is exactly the same. So, by studying the differences in their environment, we can then tease out what can be attributed to biology vs that which comes from the environment. The basic idea is that of resilience…. the ability to bounce back… and the full evidence just isn’t in yet…
Too often, we judge people harshly without considering the nuances . We fail to take into account social, economic, and biological factors.

By: Gramoz

Gramoz — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:47:18 +0000

Every individual human being matter but on this time the only thing i see on TV is Tigers Woods and in the other side people are dieing people WAKE UP. Lets help and change some important things and we go back to Tigers Woods again and you guys can still continue with them because they can wait. those humans who are dieing for stupid reason they cant wait.

The most shocking fact about war is that it’s victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.
It’s time to end the only form of institutionalized discrimination still permitted in our society, discrimination based on sexual identity or orientation.

I was Persecuted back home in Kosovo-former Yougoslavia 2 years ago.
I lost so much in my life my family,my everything i had. Is been almost 7 years and i never heard a word from my family and i know how much it hurts and i don’t want to see People going thorough the same thing and even worst for what GOD give it to me my Freedom my Life.

Persecution is a very strong word, why someone such as me has to hope still for my freedom It’s a much stronger word than ‘discrimination.’ It’s when somebodies life or liberty is in great jeopardy by the government, or forces that the government can’t or will not control, for a protected reason, like sexual orientation.

I kept my wits I had photographs taken of my injuries.I saved every article. When my family disowned me,I joined a gay rights organization and slept in my office. Often, even in countries where legal help is available theoretically, social hostility to homosexuals can overshadow their formal rights. Kosovo, for example,use to governed under a postwar U.N. mandate. It has laws banning discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation but abuses and crimes were only increasing.They broke my nose, they cut my neck with a knife and … they paralyzed my friend’s hand.

Publicly we were known to the press,Unfortunately, that even caused more negative attention for us.I was brutally beaten again. And my friend Lorik felt like he could not go on,He killed himself with pills and alcohol together. Because he couldn’t push his life to live you people can’t imagine what it’s like to be in one room, and not be able to go outside even a sec.And of course the only Future which we saw it was TO DIE.

Gramoz Prestreshi

By: flashy Mc loop

flashy Mc loop — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:02:37 +0000

Great read! thx

By: Home School College Counselor

Home School College Counselor — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:13:06 +0000

This is a great article. I think setting goals can play a part in "luck" also. I wrote an article on the issue a while back that caught some reader flak.

By: Clivo

Clivo — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:43:02 +0000

Here’s a thought . . . “Lucky people are more relaxed and open . . . ” so if certain people were ‘lucky’ and some ‘mystical or even none mystical’ luck brought them things ‘easily’ . . . then what are the chances of them being stressed out, forcing or closed off as they go through life? One would suspect that people ‘gifted’ with lucky encounters would NOT force or push through life, because they’d have no need to be that way WOULD THEY? On the contrary they WOULD be RELAXED and they would be open. I’m amazed at the so called scientific presentations or conclusions that just are NOT thought out at all . . .

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:37:06 +0000

Successful business people have known this for a long time. Seeing and taking opportunities is one of the big things that differentiates “lucky” from “unlucky” people.

The “unlucky” generally are too risk-averse for their own good. But taking risks is the only way you can truly live.

Here’s a quote from Dr. Joyce Brothers: “If you can take the worst, take the risk.”

By: Thorsten

Thorsten — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:08:10 +0000

You should read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. He’s describing a pretty similar effect and examples people who were at the right time at the right place and were able to use these opportunities. So it’s more a combination of “luck” paired with the right attitude.

By: Feeling Lucky? — Matt Mullenweg

Feeling Lucky? — Matt Mullenweg — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:00:48 +0000

[...] Feeling Lucky? by Tara Hunt: “It turns out that there IS such thing as lucky people, but it’s not some sort of mystical fate playing its hand at work after all. Instead, ‘lucky people’ are those who are really observant and open to opportunities.” ¶ « Micro-blogging vs Mega-blogging [...]

By: Michael Kozakewich

Michael Kozakewich — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:01:40 +0000

A memory comes to mind: I had just gotten off a bus in the suburbs, on my way home. It was late at night, and was dark out. I started jogging down the street towards my house.
For whatever reason, while running in the dark after a long day, I managed to see a toonie sitting in the grass beside the sidewalk. That’s enough to pay for the bus ride.

I’ve found that any opportunity I need ends up presenting itself, if I keep my eyes open. I’ve also noticed people around me getting into unfortunate ‘accidents’, which they write off as bad luck, but which I understand was actually their fault (they weren’t watching what they were doing).