The Luck Factor

[jo552006]

I highly reccommend The Luck Factor, by Dr. Richard Wiseman.  I'm not even finished reading it, but unless the last bit ruins the rest of the book (I'd update my reccommendation) then I think this is definitely worth checking out.

How about it, has anybody read this?  I was able to check out a copy from my local library.

[jo552006]

Maybe I'm the only person who has read this?  I am not 100% through it but I am close.  This book discusses luck (should we say the illusion of luck?) in a very scientific manner.  There were plenty of (scientific) tests and experiments performed regarding luck, and while I could list the main tennents (and everybody here would probably say that's just common sense) I think it is definitely worth the read.  The book certainly strikes a chord with me as it fits directly with my own beliefs about luck.

Here's one example:

The researcher asked an unlucky person (somebody who perceives themselves as unlucky) and a lucky person (somebody who perceives themselves as lucky) to meet them in a coffee shop.  a $5 bill was placed where the person would neccessarily have to walk over it in order to reach the shop.  Also, all the tables in the shop were each to have 1 actor sit at them so they would neccessarily be forced to sit down at a table with another person while waiting.  One of the tables had a "successful businessman" actor.  The "unlucky" person walked LITERALLY over the $5 bill without noticing, ordered a coffee, sat at a table and didn't talk to anybody.  The "Lucky" person found the $5 bill, sat at the table with the businessman and started engaging in conversation.  When the interviewers arrived, the lucky person and unlucky person felt polar oppossite about the EXACT SAME ENGINEERED SITUATION.

[crazyworld]

I haven't read the book, but I have read the "situation at the coffee shop" example you cite.  Here is my take on this. I would probably act like the unlucky person, not pick up someone else's $5 (likely I would tell the barista, and put it in the tip jar) and also may not really be in the mood to chit-chat with a stranger.  Sometimes I do talk to people I come across, sometimes not.  Also, I am not interested in starting a business or looking for a job, so I am not really looking for "opportunities to network".  If I talk to someone, it is with no motive at all (and I am on the shy/introvert side).  So as per the book, I am a loser of my own making.  Okay....

Second, when I blame my "luck", my complaint is with my inborn personality - too nerdy, not super ambitious, not gregarious, not having the killer instinct and confidence that entreprenuers/successful types have, etc.  So guess I am not sold on the book, at least based on the coffee shop example.  But if you have read the whole book, by all means, lets hear what you have to say further on it.

[jo552006]

I shared the book with this forum to see what other mustachians thought of it and I thought others here might enjoy it.  I honestly assumed from reading the book that many people on here would have already read the book, and it just hadn't been mentioned here.

Below is a link to the article I read that I like so much I saved it (I think that was years ago).  Only recently when I was sending it to a friend and I read it again I saw at the bottom of the article that the guy wrote a book on the same stuff. (I promptly borrowed the book).

www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf <This explains it better than I can.

This topic is especially interesting to me as I've always been called lucky, but always felt that it's all in how you look at things.  Was I lucky to graduate college in 3 years or onlucky that my parents couldn't afford me to go for 4?  Unlucky to not get my first mortgage (not enough credit usage) or was I lucky that when we were ready to buy we found a house that was just about perfect for us. 

[dragoncar]

Children need encouragement. If a kid gets an answer right, tell him it was a lucky guess. That way he develops a good, lucky feeling.
-Jack Handey