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This starts off sounding like it's going to be a fascinating story about how lotteries are designed, and how a smart person with a lot of persistence and an understanding of statistics can exploit tiny deviations from randomness to their benefit.

It becomes clear after a dozen or so paragraphs that it's some meaningless pseudo-profound bullshit about "the power of taking control of your life". Don't waste your time reading it.

Thanks. I got the same vibe part way in and bailed as well.

> If you consistently work the odds in your favor, you’ll almost always come out on top in the long run.

Only if 'consistently' means 'forever' and you have infinite funds. If you have lottery with value 2*10^9 with probability 10^{-9} and -1 with probability 1-10^{-9}, then the odds are in your favor, but you are still very likely to lose a million dollars if you if you play a million times.

Being consistent/persistent can help you, but it shouldn't be thought of as a eliminating all influence of luck.

It's a cleverly designed affiliate link list for self help books at Amazon.

OP's account is less than a day old. OP's two posts are to the same website.

This brand of insight porn backed by an opening anecdote really rubs me the wrong way. It reminds me of The Secret.

Hmm, maybe there's money to be made in writing my own insight porn. I should design my life with a blog such that I become the next Tony Robbins. So much luck to be had.

The history of probability-based lottery hacks is long and rich. Here's a Planet Money podcast episode about it: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/01/13/462982983/10-11...

This is why persistence works so well in the long run. If you are persistent in your business/profession/art, it might take a very very long time but in the end you are bound to hit some luck, learn which levers work and try a lot of things.

There's a somewhat related book by Deepak Chopra called The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire

While I am not as negative towards ideas presented on the site, Deepak Chopra is full of shit. Like seriously.

One thing is to go Secret, woo-woo and another is to understand to explore and followup on opportunities when they are presented to you.

I haven't followed his work lately, I've just read a few of his much older books. He might be full of shit now, but I can see how most people here wouldn't be into what he shares, as it's more Feely Science than 'real' science. I enjoy both and have found his perspective on spiritual life helpful, among many other sources of course.

To quote Julia Sweeney: “Deepak Chopra is full of shit!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiU5ht5W_lk#t=1h14m42s

Pasting my comment elsewhere here as well:

I haven't followed his work lately, I've just read a few of his much older books. He might be full of shit now, but I can see how most people here wouldn't be into what he shares, as it's more Feely Science than 'real' science. I enjoy both and have found his perspective on spiritual life helpful, among many other sources of course.

There are no things called “Feely Science” or “'real' science”. What you call “'real' science” is called “science”. What you call “Feely science” isn’t science, and is called, variously, “superstition”, “woo”, and “bullshit”.

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