We are all familiar with the concept of luck. It is a fairly simple idea. However, can you actually come up with a definition?
The most basic definition for what luck is would seem to be: “something good happens to you.”
Maybe that is sufficient. In a particular scenario, something can happen. If that something is good, it is good luck; if that something is bad, it is bad luck.
This way of thinking introduces the modifiers “good” and “bad”. Okay then: what are they modifying?
If we accept this idea of good luck is “something good happens”, it would seem the thing being modified is “something happens”. Does that make sense? But then, the one thing that we can be certain of is that something will happen. Things are constantly changing. Things have to happen in order for there to be change. Is everything around us constantly in a state of luck, sometimes good and sometimes bad?
However, sometimes it is the lucky outcome that something *doesn’t* happen. For example, if you fall out of tree (bad luck), you might think it lucky if you didn’t break a bone (good luck).
So now luck is “something does or doesn’t happen”? That seems pretty vague.
The concept of luck also would seem to contain some notion of likelihood. If something is overwhelmingly likely and indeed comes to pass, that would seem to be less lucky than something that is unlikely to happen. Finding a penny is lucky; finding a hundred dollars is less likely, and therefore luckier.
Can you think of an explanation for how you think of the concept of luck?
Related questions: How has luck shaped your life? Is thirteen an unlucky number? What makes change possible? What is the best sporting event you have seen in person?
I think it’s pretty simple. Good luck is an advantageous happenstance. Bad luck is the reverse.
‘Luck’ is inversely proportional to the observer’s expectations.
The more assumedly improbable the outcome, the more lucky (good or bad).