[jongjong]

I've learned that life challenges and luck are extremely asymmetric in our society. I believe that even someone who is as smart and determined as Elon Musk could be totally and hopelessly broke if born in the wrong place at the wrong time. A lot of extreme luck in life looks trivial and common in retrospect and you only realize how fortunate it is when you know what 'normal luck' looks like.

To many, 'normal luck' today feels like the world is conspiring against them; the sheer scarcity of opportunities appears intentional and the result of intelligent planning because of how extreme it is. I think that explain the increase in conspiracy theorists today.

Extreme scarcity (combined with asymmetry) of opportunities creates a powerful illusion that even the brightest minds can fall for. "Why is Peter getting 1000x the reward as Paul for doing 1/10th of the work and delivering 1/10th of the potential value or delivering negative value? Maybe some invisible force is helping Peter and/or working against Paul?"

The greater the asymmetry, the more real this 'invisible force' seems as it provides an answer which seems to explain a lot of things.