Comment by ogou | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ogou | Hacker News Reader

This kind of pessimism seems to come when people want to justify surrender. Why bother trying another path if there are no second chances, right? Now in middle age, I have found the 100s of small choices we make to be just as important as any of the big ones. Sometimes these are more important. I have seen it in my peers as well. People who choice the same path had different outcomes from all the small choices they made along the way. It's easy to attribute luck or privilege, but perseverance is a crucial factor in most success.

In the other extreme, it makes me think of the generations that have grown up with respawn video games. When you die you just respawn. Those games are ONLY second chances. It's rare that anyone plays any game all the way through on the first life they're given. If you grow up immersed in worlds without consequences it can paralyze your decision making in real life. Not always, but I have seen some people retreat into these kinds of worlds and not want IRL decisions.

> It's easy to attribute luck or privilege, but perseverance is a crucial factor in most success.

You need luck, or privilege, for your perseverance to bear fruit.

You need both! I'm stunned by how many people cannot grasp this simple concept. Typically, people who have luck tend not to notice it, and attribute everything to their merit. At the opposite, people who didn't get their fair share of luck, tend to ignore the effort part and paint all successful people as lucky slackers.

I disagree with that completely. You are arguing for a surrender of personal power and self-determination. It's a short journey between 'luck' as a concept and fate, magic, religion, or just random occurrence. If that's really your belief, then why try anything? I don't live like that. I have been able to succeed on merit or work and despite negative environments. Many, many others have as well, throughout human history.

1 - I said very clearly that you need both of them.

2 - Have you ever been an innocent victim in a serious car accident? Have you ever been diagnosed a debilitating illness independent of your habits? Have you ever lost all your material belongings in an earthquake? I suppose you didn't. Thus you are lucky.

And thank you for confirming what I had written: lucky people often don't even realise they're lucky - and I'll add: especially if they believe that idiocy called prosperity gospel!

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