There's a lot that's been written about games of skill. There'sthe 10,000 hour theory. Deliberate practice. Flow state. The list goes on.
In contrast, there's been little that's been written about games of luck.
This is because by definition luck is a random event that we can't control, so we don't bother discussing it that much. I think there's a secret hidden in plain sight, though. Luck is partially a game of skill and you can increase your odds by following the rules of the game.
Here are three ways you can attract more luck into your life.
I stole this from Josh Wolfe, who stole it from Jim Watson. The phrase "Avoid boring people" has two meanings. Read it again.
The more interesting you are, the more interest you get. And the more interest you get, the more opportunities that come your way.
And of course, the more interesting friends you have, the more interest they get. And the more interest they get, the more opportunities will come their way, which will inevitably get passed on to you (as long as you're not boring).
On a long enough time horizon, it will look like luck. But the act of being interesting to people and having interesting friends helped create those crazy moments of luck.
How to do this? It's a flywheel.
First, focus on being an interesting person. If this isn't intuitive, find someone you admire and break down to first principles what makes them interesting. "Command C" and "Command V." Copy and paste.
The more interesting you get, the more interesting people you will meet. This will then result in you becoming more interesting. Flywheel. Flywheel. Flywheel.The Bezos way.
Let's explore several mental models.
Occam's Razorstates that if all other factors are equal, you should choose the most simple option.Hanlon's Razorstates that if all other factors are equal, you should attribute bad behavior to stupidity rather than malice.
And then there's what I call the Luck Razor. If all other factors are equal, choose the path that feels the luckiest.
This is a highly personal one for me. I was supposed to go for a drink with someone cool I met on Twitter. It was standard UK winter rainy weather ("Pissing it down" is what we call it). The person texted me before saying, "I'm tired and the weather is awful. I can still do tonight but happy to cancel if you are not up for it?"
When I got this text, I was tired and didn't feel like commuting one hour in the rain. I wrote back "Let's do another time."
Before I hit send, I asked myself: "What's the luckier option? Going and meeting someone interesting or chilling at home watching Netflix?" The answer was obvious when viewed through this frame.
So I went.
Since that drink, two to three opportunities have come directly from that person. And numerous opportunities have come from those opportunities. (And more opportunities from those opportunities, and so on.)
On a long enough time scale, my hourly rate from taking the luckier option that evening has been the best hourly rate of my life so far.
Roulette is a pure game of luck because you can't control the outcome. The casino operator spins the wheel, and you get the number the ball lands on.
Poker is a game of luck and skill, in which you can control the outcome. Even though there are factors like the hand you are dealt, you can still use skill to play the hand you are dealt.
The luckiest people I know have a poker mindset they are obsessed with finding a way to hack the system.
I'd even go so far as to make the following ridiculous statement: Playing a game of roulette thinking it's poker is better than playing a game of poker thinking it's roulette.
The person who plays poker with a roulette mindset will lose. They will cause more bad luck by attributing everything to luck and ignoring the influence they have.
The person who plays roulette with a poker mindset will probably turn it into a game of skill on a long enough time horizon.
If they are obsessed with identifying the areas they can control and influence, they'll ultimately find a way to do it. They may design a chip that sits in the casino's ball or simply bribe the guy at the wheel. Either way, it's doable.
Even for games that feel like pure luck, question everything with a poker mindset. You may find a hack that nobody else has discovered because they thought it was roulette.
George Mack works in growth marketing for tech and e-commerce businesses, and studies mental models and how they influence our thinking. Follow him on Twitter.
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