What is luck?

[eudaimonia]

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
-- Seneca

 

[PureX]

"Luck" is a word we use to refer to the effect of chance on ourselves or someone else. Unfortunately, many of us do not recognize or understand the concept of chance, and so we misuse the word "luck", often.

 

[cardero]

Unfortunately, many of us do not recognize or understand the concept of chance, and so we misuse the word "luck", often.

This is what is commonly referred to as "tough luck".

 

[PureX]

This is what is commonly referred to as "tough luck".

Rather, "dumb luck", I think. *smile*

 

[rojse]

What do you mean. Getting dealt 40 royal flushes in a row cannot be considered anything else but luck.

The odds of getting any hand in poker are 52x51x50x49x48 - a royal flush is just as probable as receiving a two, a three, a six, a seven, all diamonds, and a four of clubs.

Because poker places huge significance on receiving a royal flush, and not your combination of a 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, you do not care about your hand, although it has the same statistical probability as a royal flush.

If poker did place an extra emphasis on receiving a 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, a person would managed to get an A, K, Q, J and 10, suited, would wonder when you would get your they would get the new "special hand" instead.

Receiving a royal flush forty times in a row is just as probable as receiving a 2, 3, 6, 7 of diamonds, and the 4 of clubs forty times in a row, but we prefer the first one to the second.

 

[PureX]

The odds of getting any hand in poker are 52x51x50x49x48 - a royal flush is just as probable as receiving a two, a three, a six, a seven, all diamonds, and a four of clubs.

Because poker places huge significance on receiving a royal flush, and not your combination of a 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, you do not care about your hand, although it has the same statistical probability as a royal flush.

If poker did place an extra emphasis on receiving a 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, a person would managed to get an A, K, Q, J and 10, suited, would wonder when you would get your they would get the new "special hand" instead.

Receiving a royal flush forty times in a row is just as probable as receiving a 2, 3, 6, 7 of diamonds, and the 4 of clubs forty times in a row, but we prefer the first one to the second.

This is true but meaningless.

The odds against getting the same hand ten times in ten tries is far higher than the odds of getting the same hand ten times out of a hundred tries.

Regardless of the symbols on the cards, the odds against getting the same collection of cards each time the cards are dealt increases exponentially, relative to the number of attempts. And are far greater than the odds of getting a specific arrangement of cards one time.

 

[female11]

What you mean with luck? good luck or bad luck?
Peace

 

[FatMan]

The odds of getting any hand in poker are 52x51x50x49x48 - a royal flush is just as probable as receiving a two, a three, a six, a seven, all diamonds, and a four of clubs.

Because poker places huge significance on receiving a royal flush, and not your combination of a 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, you do not care about your hand, although it has the same statistical probability as a royal flush.

If poker did place an extra emphasis on receiving a 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, a person would managed to get an A, K, Q, J and 10, suited, would wonder when you would get your they would get the new "special hand" instead.

Receiving a royal flush forty times in a row is just as probable as receiving a 2, 3, 6, 7 of diamonds, and the 4 of clubs forty times in a row, but we prefer the first one to the second.

But the point remains that getting a royal flush 40 times in a row is pure luck, because of its statistical improbability. Getting any combination of cards 40 times in a row is "lucky" if one subscribes to the theory that luck is a way to refer to statistical outliers.

 

[Seneca]

Being lucky is something fortunate happening in the face of stiff statistical (or probable) odds.

Being unlucky is something unfortunate happening in the face of stiff statistical (or probable) odds.

I have a very small statistical probability of winning the lottery - therefore if I do, I'm lucky.

I have a small statistical probability of being struck by lightning - therefore if I do, I'm unlucky.

That's all.

 

[rojse]

Luck is placing an emphasis on an outcome.

If you grab a deck of cards, shuffle them, and deal out five cards, receiving that hand is just as likely as a royal flush of diamonds. If you shuffle the cards again, deal out five more cards, receiving those two hands in a row is exactly the same probability as recieving your royal flush of diamonds twice in a row. Continuing shuffling and dealing hands, and the exact probability of receiving the sum of hands that you have received is just as likely as receiving the exact same hand of the royal diamond flush.

The same goes for lottery.

The numbers for your ticket coming up are just as probable as drawing out an ordered sequence that starts at one and rises for there. Both are just as probable, but if that came up, you would not care, unless those were your numbers. If you placed an emphasis on this straight sequence of numbers, you would call yourself lucky.

Obviously, no one really cares about the hands you receive if it does not even contain a pair, or the lotto numbers that come up unless they can win some money out of it, and neither do you. This is because the significance is placed on receiving a straight set of cards from ace to ten of the same suit, and we place significance on certain lotto number combinations.

 

[Ozzie]

What does that word mean to you?

In selected authoritative definitions, we find:

"luck - noun:

1) The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events
2) Good fortune or prosperity; success
3) One's personal fate or lot
Source: American Heritage Dictionary


1) your overall circumstances or condition in life
2) an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another
3) an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome
Source: WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.


1) the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities
2) good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance
3) a combination of circumstances, events, etc., operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person
4) some object on which good fortune is supposed to depend
Source: Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

I ask, because "luck" is frequently referenced in colloquial conversations...

"Good luck"
"Best of luck"
"That's bad luck"
"He gets all the luck"
"I should be so lucky"

What does luck mean to you, or what does it represent in your implied meaning in casual application?

Is luck something in which to "believe"?
Is luck something that can be measured, or quantified?
Is luck a cosmic "force" (akin to Karma)?
Is luck purposely selective?

To wit:
To hold a single winning lottery ticket is to be considered "lucky".
To be struck by lightning, is to be viewed as being "unlucky".

I ask, because I frequently hear theists, and others of faith-based beliefs...proffer wishes of "good luck" to almost anyone...recipients of whom may retain no inklings of personally circumstantial outcomes as being attributable to spurious/random cause/effect, or by chaotic chance.

If you retain faith-based religious beliefs, what do those beliefs suggest/allow/define regarding the notion of luck?

Is luck a factor in personalized human choice?
Does luck play a part in human existence?
Can (does) luck serve as an explanation of personal success, or personal failure?

If you are a theist that accepts luck as a legitimate phenomena...then what aspects of luck does your deity (or gods) allow or influence? Is luck just another way of illustrating/defining a (given) god's manifested (yet mysterious) method of reward/punishment upon humans? Do you suppose that devoutly pious religious adherents are perhaps more lucky than unbelievers?

Is there any credible statistical model of probability that can accurately/reliably predict the eventual wished-for outcomes/results of a personal plea/prayer?

If notions of a personalized/ascribed/predisposed "reason" and "purpose" (in/of a mortal existence) are then pre-ordained by either deities or other supernaturalistic "forces" (like "fate", or "destiny")...then is luck something veritably real that can be managed or altered (by behavior or choice), or is it something purely imagined as a wish or hope of fortuitous circumstance from events only attributable to random chance?

The same circumstance that arises could be taken as an opportunity, or "let through to the keeper" so to speak (cricket analogy: you'll have to look it up).

So luck is what arises when I have made a conscious decision to change things.

Everything else is destiny, if fortune could be bothered with what passes as destiny.

 

[DeepShadow]

Luck is chance, taken personally.

 

[Willamena]

So luck is what arises when I have made a conscious decision to change things.

Everything else is destiny, if fortune could be bothered with what passes as destiny.

I see it the opposite way. "Destiny" requires conscious input, because it directly addresses the outcome of a person's life and circumstances. When a destiny is "fulfilled," it is by the person acting to bring about that condition. "Luck" is circumstance determined by chance happenstance, so a result of observation.

 

[doppelganger]

"Luck" is the projection of personal significance onto the experience of uncertainty.

 

[Ozzie]

I see it the opposite way. "Destiny" requires conscious input, because it directly addresses the outcome of a person's life and circumstances. When a destiny is "fulfilled," it is by the person acting to bring about that condition. "Luck" is circumstance determined by chance happenstance, so a result of observation.

I would say this conception reinforces luck as something available to hindsight only, in turn reinforcing the notion of destiny you draw as an observation.

Luck without a notion of being random chance is exemplified by the phrase: "making your own luck". Luck as a general category is perfectly captured by hindsight.

 

[Willamena]

I would say this conception reinforces luck as something available to hindsight only, in turn reinforcing the notion of destiny you draw as an observation.

Luck without a notion of being random chance is exemplified by the phrase: "making your own luck". Luck as a general category is perfectly captured by hindsight.

Luck is most certainly a past tense or hindsight thing, as is interpretation of observation --"Wow, that sure was lucky." Destiny occurs for us "now," in the moment (as does divination).

Astrology is said to divine our destiny of the future because it is possible to use its method and extrapolate the movement of the stars (planets) to read for a future moment "as-if now."

 

[Ozzie]

Luck is most certainly a past tense or hindsight thing, as is interpretation of observation --"Wow, that sure was lucky." Destiny occurs for us "now," in the moment (as does divination).

Astrology is said to divine our destiny of the future because it is possible to use its method and extrapolate the movement of the stars (planets) to read for a future moment "as-if now."

Do you deny you "divine" your hindsight or astrology now. If you decline to act then destiny arises, no. Hardly a prescription for influencing future events though.

 

[Ozzie]

"Luck" is the projection of personal significance onto the experience of uncertainty.

I would have to agree except that uncertainty is not an "experience" knowable in hindsight.

 

[Willamena]

Do you deny you "divine" your hindsight or astrology now. If you decline to act then destiny arises, no. Hardly a prescription for influencing future events though.

I'm not sure I understand the question. I thought I'd submitted (rather than denied) that divination happens for the diviner in the moment called "now," the present.

The circumstances that give context of meaning to the divination can be past or future, though.

Fate happens despite you. If a judge and jury determine your "fate," the circumstances are not in your hands. Destiny only happens with your involvement.

A really good example of destiny is portrayed in the movie "Whale Rider." In it at one point a young girl fulfills her destiny to be leader; she had read signs in the events that transpired to that point, and when the time came knew to reach out and grasp her destiny.