Art of Luck

"Most people define luck as an unpredictable phenomenon that leads to good or bad outcomes in life. In this view luck is something that happens by pure chance. If you look more closely, there may be more to the story than dumb luck."pg.190

This passage taken from the chapter on the science of luck, investigates a topic that many people of different ages all tend to cross. Specifically in this quote, the author Ben Sherwood goes a little bit more in depth with the art of luck and its misconception. He brings up the point of surviving an airplane crash in one seat while the person beside you dies. Many would think this is pure luck however although this survival might have been by chance, what really could have been a true factor of the person's survival was their attitude and actions that may have increased their odds of surviving. As skeptic as it may sound in this situation there is proof provided to back up the statement. For example, this person may have paid attention to the safety briefing, plan an escape route, and evacuated without waiting or mourning. This I find is a unique way of looking at the idea of luck. Many of us assume that certain things occur just by dumb luck but sometimes, not all the time, we don't pay careful attention to what the underlying cause was in order to make that person lucky. Sometimes we assume certain things happen because of luck. However, this is just a hypothesis of one of the ways that luck can be overlooked or analyzed. There are also many cases where luck just occurs, in these cases sometimes there is no explanation. But one piece of advise that the researcher of luck leaves off with, is that (he believes) 90% of luck is truly defined by your state of mind and the way you think as opposed to 10% being pure randomness. In many cases, it is believed that your attitude and behaviour towards life are what create luck for you. Does more control over our lives really mean a better chance of creating luck for ourselves?