People who identify as lucky really are different than others

[crenquis]

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. - JD Salinger

[enceladus]

There it is, scientific proof that luck doesn’t exist, but unluck does. The lucky are not any more furtunate than the rest of us, merely less unfortunate.

[gellfex]

@GulliverFoyle

Just to add, Teela Brown might have been bred for luck, but she could be bad luck for those in her company if her survival chances were increased by their own decreasing

I tried using a similar argument to people who claimed Trump would be a great president because of his business success. He might finish his presidency richer but the entire US will look like Atlantic City.

[Cynical]

@anon75430791

If the USA were more Karaoke obsessed, I’d bet my 401k on which of those friends sing, “My Way” on Karaoke night.

Sometimes we can learn a lot from other cultures:

My Way killings

[Jorpho]

[quote=“KXKVI, post:37, topic:97388”]I think there’s a flip side: people who feel they’ve had success purely through “sheer determination and hard work,” but had a lot of luck too (meeting the right people at the right time, having the right parents, etc.).[/quote]It seems to me that you really can’t hope to convince someone who believes they’ve “had success through ‘sheer determination and hard work’” that things might be otherwise. Why should they believe they’re subject to the same capricious whims of fate as everyone else? It’s a terrifying prospect – far less pleasant than the belief that one is master of one’s destiny, superior to one’s peers – and, after achieving a certain level of success, one from which they are in general safely isolated.

[nimelennar]

@Jorpho

It seems to me that you really can’t hope to convince someone who believes they’ve “had success through ‘sheer determination and hard work’” that things might be otherwise. Why should they believe they’re subject to the same capricious whims of fate as everyone else?

It’s all luck
It’s just luck
There’s no way you can rig the game, because
It’s all luck
It’s just luck
The sinner and the saint can wind up the same, 'cause
It’s all luck
It’s just luck
That decides between the noose and the knife
It’s all luck
It’s just luck
When you’re begging to switch
With some rich son-of-a-bitch
Who ain’t never done nothing to deserve that life

The River Won't Flow - Songs For A New World

[popobawa4u]

@Jorpho

Why should they believe they’re subject to the same capricious whims of fate as everyone else?

Why should they believe anything at all? Why should they believe that their own “self interest” has more value than anyone else’s “self interest”? That might be the seed of all pervasive genetically-programmed irrational behaviors.

Belief in your own specialness might be a social survival trait, but when your species reshapes the planet, it is a direct liability to physical survival. Which appears to be itself a prerequisite for social survival.