# Do you believe in luck? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254 "2019-02-10T01:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/1 "2019-02-10T01:28:05Z")
Luck is defined as a force that brings good fortune or adversity. I don’t believe in luck as a force. I do believe that random events or things occur that we cannot control, but I do not attribute them to a force. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/2 "2019-02-10T01:40:26Z")
I call myself very lucky in my life, but it was the luck of the draw, you might say, rather than any active force. It didn’t have to be me that was born to my parents at the time I was born and grew up, and was blessed with some native intelligence. But it would have been someone. I don’t believe in charms or spells or behaviors that change a future outcome; a lot of old saws about luck (not walking under a ladder, for example) are just practical advice clothed in superstition. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/3 "2019-02-10T02:00:05Z")
I sort of believe in Karma…not sure if that is a force or not. And I have also been very lucky in life, even in trivial things, like sitting in the lucky seat & winning a prize. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/4 "2019-02-10T02:02:37Z")
I call it a convenient term for circumstance, not a force. It’s just convenient to use the term lucky when someone’s circumstance has tended to be better than what is percieved to be better than average, whether that perception has a real foundation or not. Same for the converse , bad luck. Also sometimes extremely convenient for just not having to go into analyzing complex matters even if you understand them. Like if it was simply a result of your people skills or lack thereof. Also when the statistical circumstance happens to line up even when you knew it would. I’d say this is pretty much where the phrase " I got lucky" comes from… Chances are you’re gonna get laid every so often but when it happens , which was inevitable you “got lucky” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/5 "2019-02-10T02:06:51Z")
You can define luck as a random result based on your actions, so yeah, luck happens whether or not you believe in it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/6 "2019-02-10T02:24:36Z")
I think I like the phrasing in the OP. You can say, after the fact, that someone was lucky. But there’s no way to predict who will be lucky, and in particular, someone who’s been lucky so far is no more nor less likely than anyone else to be lucky in the future. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/7 "2019-02-10T02:31:39Z")
I have had a lot of good fortune in my life, as well as a certain amount of ill fortune. At this point, the good has far outweighed the bad. If you had asked me 20 years ago, my answer would have been the other way around. You can call it anything you want, fortune, luck, karma, whatever… but yes, I believe in it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/8 "2019-02-10T03:37:28Z")
Luck favors the prepared. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/9 "2019-02-10T03:43:14Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Luck favors the prepared. So, Boy Scouts. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/10 "2019-02-10T03:44:27Z")
Everything that happens to everyone else is a side effect of my luck. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/11 "2019-02-10T03:53:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think I like the phrasing in the OP. You can say, after the fact, that someone was lucky. But there’s no way to predict who will be lucky, and in particular, someone who’s been lucky so far is no more nor less likely than anyone else to be lucky in the future. I don’t know that this is true. In my experience, the same kinds of people are considered lucky - people who are gregarious, optimistic, alert and flexible. They just seem to pick up on opportunities that other people miss. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/12 "2019-02-10T05:58:37Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Everything that happens to everyone else is a side effect of my luck. You’ve been hoping for this thread for 19 years, haven’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/13 "2019-02-10T06:02:02Z")
Anyway, what people call “luck” is, IMO, a superstion arising from ignorance of The Force. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/14 "2019-02-10T06:06:12Z")
I’m happy to be luckier than good. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/15 "2019-02-10T06:13:35Z")
People make their own luck. I certainly do. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/16 "2019-02-10T07:14:33Z")
Not a force, but I’m with Spock in defining being lucky as having “random factors operating in my favor.” I’d have to watch The Doomsday Machine again to get the quote exactly right. In college we create the laws of luck, including ∑ luck = 0 and the surface integral of luck around a dorm room = 0. Thus, if my roommate got lucky, I wouldn’t. These laws seemed to work pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/17 "2019-02-10T15:15:25Z")
My mother used to say “the harder I work, the luckier I am”, and I get what she meant, but for some people, it usually comes up heads, and for others, it usually comes up tails. I have been pretty lucky over my lifetime, but I know it’s due to chance and not karma or anything else. My Vietnam War lottery draft number was 365 (the last number picked) and last week I bowled a 211 game (my average is 125), so luck happens now and then. Why good luck happens to some people more than others I can’t explain. It’s just the luck of the draw… ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/18 "2019-02-10T21:06:24Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@teela brown](#): > > > > Everything that happens to everyone else is a side effect of my luck. > > You’ve been hoping for this thread for 19 years, haven’t you? Good catch! I hadn’t noticed who the poster was. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2019, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/19 "2019-02-11T00:22:02Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Everything that happens to everyone else is a side effect of my luck. I was coming in to say that I believe in part of the teela brown affect…not luck as a form of propulsion for events, but the idea that people live on different parts of a bell curve, luck-wise. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-luck/829254/20 "2019-02-11T00:39:14Z")
I have much good Ju-ju; or so the Obeah-woman tells me.