http://pro-libertate.net/20160726/304-read-success-and-luck-good-fortune-and-myt... ( )

Odd book, by a noted economics professor. Easy to read, and short, but kind of wanders around. A lot about how important luck is to our lives (an interest of mine) but also a lot about how tax policy could be made more progressive (I’m sympathetic but not terrifically intrigued with reading about it). Illustrated by lots of personal anecdotes that were well done but maybe they should’ve been trimmed a bit. Would enjoy chatting with the guy at a party, not so sure I’d read another of his books. ( )

practice “Antãology”.

Followers of Antãology believe luck determines most of our lives.

If we fast forward 13.8 billion years simple probability gets us to this point. Since the universe is everything, it's every possibility and that it includes the possibility of me being right here, right now, posting this very comment.

But certainly there's a bit of luck involved that I and the other 7B on the planet happen to exist right now, in this place. Now jumping forward, when, where and to whom we're born is entirely out of our hands. Plus we should try and avoid disabilities, mental illnesses, terminal illnesses, being killed in a car accident or any of the other variables that determine how difficult life can be if we even get a life.

At some point we get a say in things. We take what we're given and we have to make the most of it. It's hard to say how much is down to us and how much is down to luck. If we just take our lifetimes, my current thinking it's about 90 percent luck and 10 percent on us. That's not a defeatist attitude or relying on faith. If it is only 10 percent then we've got to make that 10 percent count. This allows us to focus on the things we control and things we don't control. We need to focus on the stuff we control and not worry about the stuff we don't.

I think it's really important that people appreciate the role luck plays in life. People who have it, don't appreciate it. People who don't, blame themselves. If you appreciate luck then you appreciate life. If you consider how monumentally fortunate you are to live in a country without war and famine then you will appreciate it more. You will be less angry and bitter, more understanding of people in the world who didn't get your luck and generally just a nicer person to be around (and less prone to being manipulated).

Equally when things are monumentally shit in your life, don't be afraid to put it down to luck. It doesn't make it less shit but at least you won't blame yourself for being hit by lightening that time you decided to play golf in a storm (ok if wasn't entirely down to bad luck). ( )

Maybe should have been 4-stars.

This book is the REAL way to give up on your retarded thoughts of a rational world. ( )

This was two totally separate books barely hinged together. Part of it is: luck plays a very important role in success. The other part is: what we really need is a progressive consumption tax, to rein in wasteful spending that people only engage in because everyone else is doing it. I finished it, including the appendix that answers FAQ on the progressive consumption tax, and suddenly remembered, "Wait, the title of this is SUCCESS AND LUCK, what happened to that topic again?"
The loose hinge is that when people realize and acknowledge how big a role luck has played in their success, they become more generous and willing to accept more public spending... hence, we can push the progressive consumption tax, which we need for these other reasons. Get it? It's loose.
I didn't learn much from the success & luck part - I've already read Malcolm Gladwell. One takeaway is how depressing and non-motivating it is to acknowledge the role of luck; so from a mood perspective, we're best adopting the following attitude: all my PAST success was due to luck, but all my FUTURE success will be due to effort.
I do want to note that the guy has got a wonderful skill at spinning his own attitude, based on this personal information he shared: he was an adoptee, and discovered in adulthood that the family that relinquished him was quite well-to-do, coming from old money. And he is THANKFUL, because if he'd grown up with a trust fund, he wouldn't have made the effort to achieve any of the things that he ended up doing. That's really something, being so grateful to have been given up for adoption into more needy circumstances than you would have otherwise. Whatever, if it works for you, great! ( )