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by coolestguy 168 days ago
If it's so easy, why haven't you done it?
2 comments

Because luck plays a very significant role.
Attributing something to luck sounds like a lazy cop out, sorry. We just had an article on the front page yesterday about “increasing your luck”.

If you need to be lucky in meeting the right people, you can increase your chances by spending your evenings in the your nearest financial district watering hole. We’ve easily established luck can be controlled for, which puts us back into skill territory.

What specifically must one luck out on? Have you tried?

Exactly, as a multimillion lottery winner, it upsets me so much when people say I won because of luck.

I played every single day, and I played at different locations. I also made sure I performed my pre-ticket rituals which I learned from other lottery winners. Other people could have done the same. It’s absolutely a skill issue.

You picked the lottery you played, on which day, with what buyin, where you bought the tickets from. Did you not?
> Attributing something to luck sounds like a lazy cop out, sorry.

Everyone one of us here has an unbroken line of lucky (lucky enough!) ancestors stretching back a billion years or so. Pretending it's not a thing is silly.

When you're born matters. Where you're born matters. Who you encounter matters. etc. etc. etc.

> What specifically must one luck out on? Have you tried?

I think perhaps we have different definitions of luck.

No, I think we have a similar definition of luck, but I think you’ve succumbed to a defeatist attitude. You have to be pretty unlucky to be permanently locked out of becoming a CEO, and if you’re dealt those cards, moaning about it on an online forum would be way down in your list of priorities.
> You have to be pretty unlucky to be permanently locked out of becoming a CEO…

Sure, but that's not what's being asserted. I am not "permanently locked out" of megacorp CEO roles; I'm just vanishingly unlikely to get one.

There are lots of people who have enough singing/dancing skill to be a mega popstar like Taylor Swift. There just aren't enough slots.

Could I become the next Steve Jobs? Maybe! I'd have to get really lucky.

Then why were you bringing up conditions of ones birth?

Vanishingly unlikely to get one if you try, or vanishingly unlikely to get one if you sit on your ass all day?

I assume you’re talking about the former and yet I don’t think you’ve thought this through. I think you’ve blindly attributed to luck what actually requires time, perseverance, grit, lack of morality. The only way to figure that out is for you to offer up your understanding of what one must luck out on?

No one said anything about megacorps though, just CEOs.
That and having enough millions in the first place to meet with the right people and get/buy a position helps.
As the Rick & Morty quote goes, "that just sounds like luck with extra steps".
To Elon's credit he didn't start out with millions
Just a well off white politician as a father during South African apartheid.
In Errol Musk's political career, he was a city councillor and member of an opposition party. So, while true, this is minor league. His business ventures appear to be more relevant to his wealth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Musk#Career

But the dice gets rolled for everyone and clearly success isn’t randomly distributed.

So what does that tell you?

It must be luck plus something else.

> It must be luck plus something else.

That is why I said “significant role”, not “the only requirement”, yes.

In science we have the idea of background noise - a random signal that is always there is random fashion.

And what is typically done is you ignore it. It’s always there, it’s random, and it applies to all samples.

Same with luck and success. You can control luck, so you focus on what’s left.

Because most of the people don't want to. Additionally, there is a limit on positions. Only few people will get there. But it doesn't mean that there was a competition based on abilities, that some extraordinary skills are needed, or that many other people would not be as good.