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Comment by ksec | Hacker News Reader

But the world as whole, doesn't accept Luck. Not middle or even top management. Those who do, are actually founders, Bill Gate and Steve Jobs both talk about how lucky they are. I mentioned Luck in most of my interview and not a single one likes it. The older I am, the more I became aware how many of my success or wins , are not really because I am ten times better then others, yes it may have played a part, but there are lots of moving parts, and I am only a small part of it. In essence, I got lucky. There is no way, a human, or even machine could calculate what is going to happen next. The possibilities and probabilities are endless.

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Right, humans seem hard-wired to discount/ignore luck, because it's hard to fit it into a conceptual framework. We prefer to create stories with clear causes even in situations which we abstractly know are random. (Ex: The myth of a "hot hand" or "I'm due for a change of luck.")

This extends to how they try to explain outcomes, so that the wall-street executive is either seen as a leadership-god or else as a corrupt shark, rather than a mostly-regular person with luck.

In closing, some humor I remember reading once:

> Most people won't admit how they got their current jobs unless you push them up against a built-in wall unit and punch them in the stomach until they spill their drink and start yelling, "I'LL NEVER INVITE YOU TO ONE OF MY PARTIES AGAIN, YOU DRUNKEN FOOL!"

> I think the reason these annoying people won't tell me how they got their jobs is because they are embarrassed to admit luck was involved. I can't blame them. Typically, the pre-luck part of their careers involved doing something enormously pathetic.

-- "The Dilbert Future", by Scott Adams

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity” - Oprah

By and large you can't control what opportunities sprout up around you, but you can control how prepared you are to take advantage of them when they do. EG: you can spend more of your free time learning new technologies, so that you might at least be passable at them should the need arise.

I think the reason interviewers don't like talking about luck is because they'd rather hear what you're doing to help yourself at getting lucky. How do you best prepare yourself for the unknown opportunities coming in the future? Sure, its only half the equation, but its the half you get to control.

Generally I think you're right, but Seneca may have said that before Oprah did.

I agree luck is a factor. But you can increase your chances, by the choices you make, by perseverance ...

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