The Science of Luck

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ^ | May/June 2003 | Richard Wiseman

[TBP]

Here is an article on the "science of luck," based on a ten-year study. It provides some very interesting reading.

Apparently the author found consistent patterns of behavior between people who would be considered lucky in life and those considered unlucky.

Over the years I have interviewed these volunteers, asked them to complete diaries, personality ques-tionnaires, and intelligence tests, and invited them to my laboratory to participate in experiments. The findings have revealed that luck is not a magical ability or the result of random chance. Nor are peo-ple born lucky or unlucky. Instead, although lucky and unlucky people have almost no insight into the real causes of their good and bad luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their fortune. My research revealed that lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance op-portunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

[TBP]

The great baseball executive Branch Rickey once said, "Luck is the residue of design." It is popular to say (I first heard it from basketball player Danny Manning) that "luck is where preparation meets opportunity." This article seems to back up the idea that we make our own luck, as these quotes tell us.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Always Right]

They are skilled at creating and noticing chance op-portunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

That's true, but there is luck that is simply the result of random chance such as the Powerball Jackpot $240 million single ticket holder. In the case of people like Micheal Jordon, 'luck' is the result of being good.

[TBP]

but there is luck that is simply the result of random chance such as the Powerball Jackpot $240 million single ticket holder

I don't believe in random chance. The winner had a vision of winning, a consciousness that mede him a winner, so he won.