# Luck-what is it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260 "2011-06-21T05:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/1 "2011-06-21T05:04:36Z")
Now this is a little philosophical for a “great debate”, so it’s possible it may be moved to "Mundane stuff…"but… Is the absence of bad luck the same thing as good luck? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/2 "2011-06-21T05:22:28Z")
Luck – good luck or bad luck – is just an imaginary construct in your mind. It’s used to explain things you don’t understand, either because you don’t know how to calculate probability, or because you want to assign relevance to random coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/3 "2011-06-21T06:53:42Z")
“Luck” is just the hardwired human tendancy to look for patterns in randomness. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/4 "2011-06-21T07:16:35Z")
Luck, good or bad, is shorthand for “something out of the ordinary”. As such, the absence of bad luck is not good luck (and vice versa), since the absence of something out of the ordinary is not in itself out of the ordinary by definition. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/5 "2011-06-21T08:05:54Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > Is the absence of bad luck the same thing as good luck? No. _Another person’s_ bad luck is the same thing as good luck… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/6 "2011-06-21T11:37:06Z")
Divine favor, result of blessings of God, or if the person has given away those blessings to another god, resulting in ‘bad luck’ or sometimes called curses. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/7 "2011-06-21T12:59:10Z")
Yeah, I’m going with kanicbird’s interpretation. Reality is far to boring. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/8 "2011-06-21T13:57:10Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Luck – good luck or bad luck – is just an imaginary construct in your mind. It’s used to explain things you don’t understand, either because you don’t know how to calculate probability, or because you want to assign relevance to random coincidence. Depends on how you define ‘luck.’ I’d personally define it as the extent to which actual outcomes vary from reasonable expectations. By this definition, good and bad luck are quite real, and are both unavoidable. And in answer to the OP’s query, by this definition an absence of bad luck would constitute good luck, because you’d expect to have both over any reasonable interval of time. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/9 "2011-06-21T14:04:55Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > “Luck” is just the hardwired human tendancy to look for patterns in randomness. This. As difficult as it may be to understand, with bazillions of events happening constantly, sometimes it “appears” as if it would be impossible for certain groupings of events to happen without external input. The people who have won the lottery twice? Odds are in favor of it happening. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/10 "2011-06-21T14:46:05Z")
Luck = Preparation + Opportunity ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/11 "2011-06-21T14:49:58Z")
That’s a nice motivational poster, but you can prepare and have all the opportunity in the world and still get hit by a bus crossing the street. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/12 "2011-06-21T14:51:50Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Luck = Preparation + Opportunity That formula only generates 3.9 lucianos per wishrub. If you need more, you’ll have to throw “Aggression” into the mix. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/13 "2011-06-21T14:51:59Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Luck – good luck or bad luck – is just an imaginary construct in your mind. It’s used to explain things you don’t understand, either because you don’t know how to calculate probability, or because you want to assign relevance to random coincidence. Some people use the term to assign random coincidence to relevance - my wife is good at this. 😉 Talking about a person we know - Laura found out they sold a machine shop that they had started for about $1.5 million dollars. “He’s lucky.” “What do you mean he’s lucky?” “He got paid $1.5 million for his machine shop.” “No, if he got paid $1.5 million for his machine shop _and he didn’t have a machine shop_, then he could be considered ‘lucky’. But he sold a twenty-year running business, so I don’t see much luck in that. It’s not like somebody randomly wrote him a check.” So, yeah - it’s an imaginary construct in people’s minds which they define however they wish. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/14 "2011-06-21T14:54:09Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > That’s a nice motivational poster, but you can prepare and have all the opportunity in the world and still get hit by a bus crossing the street. So if you live your whole life w/out getting into a serious accident, what is that? What if you never have a bad illness? Good luck? Or just not bad? ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/15 "2011-06-21T14:58:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Luck = Preparation + Opportunity This comment reminds me of the Spanish guy who won the lottery, with the last number being 48. When asked how he got the correct last number, he replied: {paraphrased} “I dreamed of the number 7 for 7 straight nights. And 7 times 7 is 48!” ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/16 "2011-06-21T15:02:25Z")
When I was in a terrible car wreck a lot of people told me I was lucky I wasn’t killed. It’s true, I was very close to death. But, I claim I was unlucky to have had a wreck at all. If I was lucky I would have gently bumped a beautiful, rich woman, somehow causing her to fall in love with me. Maybe you could claim she was unlucky in that case. So, it’s all in our heads. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/17 "2011-06-21T15:02:38Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > So if you live your whole life w/out getting into a serious accident, what is that? What if you never have a bad illness? Good luck? Or just not bad? I’d say you’d be “fortunate”. But that’s just a description of the situation one is in, and not the process of how one got there. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/18 "2011-06-21T15:09:00Z")
Good luck is when we like the random crap that happens, bad luck is when we don’t. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/19 "2011-06-21T15:20:06Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Good luck is when we like the random crap that happens, bad luck is when we don’t. That’s it. Luck is determined\* ex post facto\*. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260/20 "2011-06-21T15:24:07Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Good luck is when we like the random crap that happens, bad luck is when we don’t. But that’s my question; what if it’s what DOESN"T happen? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luck-what-is-it/586260.md?page=2)