this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2024
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[–] 13esq 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

All our lives are absolutely random, even if it doesn't appear so, you were one of trillions of sperm and are one of billions of humans.

It can be argued that everything in your life is down to pure chance. I know that some people don't like that idea, especially when they are somewhat successful and want to talk about all the hard work they did to gain their achievements.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I mean, success is not all random. It's part of that, but it's not enough for most people.

[–] 13esq 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I disagree.

I do understand where you're coming from though, you're opinion is very common. When you've worked your whole life to be comfortable and you want to understand why some people are living in comparitive poverty, it's nice to just think about how lazy and feckless they are and how hard working and diligent you are.

I'm not saying that your opinion is even entirely untrue (although I do think it's mostly untrue), but I am saying that good chance has an awful lot more to do with it than most people consider.

You could be the most hard working person in history, be born in Africa and die of dysentery at age five. Likewise, I myself am doing OK as an electrician, but the only reason for that is that my dad was an electrician and he helped me get on to a path in to the career via an apprenticeship that I was very lucky to get. I have no idea what I'd be doing today if I hadn't gone down that career path by pure chance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

It's not like you don't need luck and I'm ignorant (arrogant?) enough to think all my life is of my own doing.

To not reveal many personal details, let's just say I'm from a very different background than you are and not much was handed to me. Not even a career path.

I've been extremely lucky a few times and my hard working nature did the rest. Sure, without luck my hard work would be worthless. But without my hard work all the luck would amount to nothing.

It all amounts to opportunities and for many people the opportunities are very few.

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