What Is Luck?

What does it mean to be lucky? Does luck even exist? Is the world really all about chance or fate, or maybe the world is a lot more rational and determined than we think and the issue is that we don’t understand as much about the world as we think.

This is the start of an informal paper on luck. For now, it is mostly simply a list of related terms and concepts. To be continued, but this is the start.

I see a short list of a cluster of related terms or concepts:

1. Luck
2. Chance
3. Fate
4. Will
5. Randomness
6. Probability
7. Statistics
8. Accident
9. Variability
10. Determinism
11. Causality

And more. In fact, a subsequent section provides an extended list of terms which relate in some way to luck.

Words and phrases related to luck

1. Absence of skill
2. Accident
3. Accidental
4. Against — Run up against
5. Ambiguity
6. Amulet
7. As you sow, so shall you reap
8. Attitude
9. Attitude — Negative attitude
10. Attitude — Positive attitude
11. Bad luck
12. Ball bounces — Way the ball bounces
13. Beginner’s luck
14. Being in the right place at the right time
15. Best-laid plans — The best-laid plans of mice and men
16. Beyond our control
17. Bias
18. Blessing
19. Break, breaks
20. Bump into
21. Card — Pick a card, any card
22. Cards — In the cards
23. Cause
24. Causal
25. Causality
26. Caution
27. Certainty
28. Chance
29. Chance — Take a chance
30. Chance — Taking a chance
31. Chance — Taking chances
32. Chance encounter
33. Chance on
34. Chance upon
35. Charmed
36. Choice
37. Choice — Good choices
38. Coin — Flip a coin
39. Coincidence
40. Come across
41. Come upon
42. Competition
43. Confluence of events
44. Consequences
45. Contingency
46. Contingent
47. Contradictory
48. Control
49. Control — Beyond our control
50. Cookie crumbles — Way the cookie crumbles
51. Corruption
52. Corruption — Fix is in
53. Could happen, may happen, might happen, should happen, shouldn’t happen
54. Coup
55. Create
56. Crop up
57. Cryptic
58. Cup
59. Curse
60. Cursed
61. Dame Fortune
62. Danger
63. Dark — Shot in the dark
64. Dart
65. Dart — Throw a dart
66. Destined
67. Destiny
68. Determinism
69. Develop
70. Dice — Does God play dice with the universe?
71. Dice — Roll of the dice
72. Dice — Roll the dice
73. Discovery
74. Distribution (probability, range)
75. Divine providence
76. Divine will
77. Does God play dice with the universe?
78. Doom
79. Easy
80. Efforts — Personal efforts
81. Element of uncertainty
82. Encounter
83. Enigma
84. Error — Trial and error
85. Events — Confluence of events
86. Eventuality
87. Everything happens for a reason
88. Expectations
89. Expectations — Rational expectations
90. Fate
91. Favor
92. Favorable outcome
93. Fix is in
94. Fix is in — corruption
95. Flip a coin
96. Fluke
97. For no good reason
98. Forecast
99. Foreordain
100. Fortuity
101. Fortune
102. Fortune — Dame Fortune
103. Fortune — Good fortune
104. Fortune — Lady Fortune
105. Fortune — Wheel of fortune
106. Four-leaf clover
107. Free will
108. Full upon
109. Future
110. Gamble
111. Game of chance
112. Gift of the gods
113. God’s plan
114. God’s will
115. Godsend
116. Good choices
117. Good fortune
118. Good luck
119. Good reason
120. Good reason — For no good reason
121. Handwriting on the wall
122. Happen
123. Happen upon
124. Happens — Shit happens
125. Happenstance
126. Hard
127. Hard luck
128. Hazard
129. History
130. History — Past as prologue
131. Hope
132. Horseshoe
133. Imagine
134. In my stars
135. In our stars
136. In the cards
137. In your stars
138. Incidental
139. Increase your odds
140. Indeterminate
141. Inexplicable
142. Influence your future
143. Inscrutable
144. Invent
145. Jeopardy
146. Jinx
147. Judgment
148. Judgment — Bad Judgment
149. Judgment — Good Judgment
150. Just my luck
151. Karma
152. Kismet
153. Lady Fortune
154. Lady Luck
155. Leg-up
156. Lick — Just my luck
157. Lot
158. Luck
159. Luck — Lady Luck
160. Luck of birth
161. Luck of the draw
162. Lucked out
163. Lucky
164. Lucky shot in the dark
165. Lucky stars
166. Magic
167. May happen, might happen, could happen, should happen, shouldn’t happen
168. Might happen, may happen, could happen, should happen, shouldn’t happen
169. Materialize
170. Miracle
171. Misfortune
172. Mistake
173. Mystery
174. Natural consequence
175. Negative attitude
176. Obscure
177. Odds
178. Opportunity
179. Past as prologue for the future
180. Peril
181. Personal efforts
182. Pick a card, any card
183. Plan
184. Plan — The best-laid plans of mice and men
185. Portion
186. Positive attitude
187. Predestination
188. Predetermination
189. Prediction
190. Predilection
191. Preordained
192. Preordination
193. Probability
194. Prosperity
195. Providence
196. Puzzle
197. Quantum fluctuations
198. Rabbit’s foot
199. Radioactive decay
200. Random walk
201. Randomness
202. Rational expectations
203. Rationale
204. Read your palm
205. Right place at the right time
206. Right place at the right time — Being in the right place at the right time
207. Risk
208. Roll of the dice
209. Roll the dice
210. Roulette — Russian roulette
211. Run into
212. Run up against
213. Russian roulette
214. Serendipity
215. Shit happens
216. Shit outta luck (SOL)
217. Shot
218. Shot in the dark
219. Shot in the dark — Lucky shot in the dark
220. Should happen, shouldn’t happen, may happen, might happen, could happen
221. Simulation
222. Speculate, speculation
223. Spin the wheel
224. Stab
225. Stars — In my stars
226. Stars — In our stars
227. Stars — In your stars
228. Stars — Lucky stars
229. Statistics
230. Stub toe on
231. Stumble into
232. Stumble on
233. Stumble upon
234. Success
235. Superstition
236. Take a chance
237. Taking a chance
238. Taking chances
239. Thrive
240. Throw a dart
241. Trial and error
242. Trip over
243. Uncertainty
244. Uncertainty — Element of uncertainty
245. Uncertainty about causality
246. Unexpected
247. Unexplained
248. Unknown
249. Unlucky
250. Variability
251. Venture
252. Wager
253. Wall — Handwriting on the wall
254. Way the ball bounces
255. Way the cookie crumbles
256. What goes around comes around
257. What’s past is prologue
258. Wheel of fortune
259. Will
260. Will — Divine will
261. Will — Free will
262. Windfall

Luck as a value judgment

Luck and chance seem like direct synonyms, but chance seems more neutral, with no clear bias in favor of one outcome or the other, while luck is either good or bad, with a clear bias in favor of one outcome or the other.

Chance seems more a synonym for raw, mathematical probability. What is the chance? That question seems more an inquiry as to what might happen rather than an attempt at a value judgment of any outcome.

Probability vs. statistics

Probability seems more an assessment of the likelihood of one outcome or another while statistics is more a summary or enumeration of actual outcomes when an activity or experiment is run a significant number of times. How often did an actual outcome occur, as a fraction of all outcomes?

Is luck a physical reality or a social and mental construct?

Is there some quantum mechanical physical force or phenomenon at play with luck, or is it wholly a social and mental construct, something that we imagine and even believe in despite its lacking any physical manifestation outside of the human mind?

Good question. Worth pondering.

Is there some underlying, foundational phenomenological mechanism that drives chance and luck, or was Einstein right to suggest that God does not play dice with the universe?

Notes

1. Impact of luck and chance on society as a whole, in aggregate.
2. Impact of uncertainty and ambiguity on society as a whole.