What Is Luck?
A moment after a lecture made me rethink luck and the effort behind an opportunity.
What is luck? It is really a good question. With the wind, even pigs can fly.
I always admire some friends’ luck, or destiny. Many golden opportunities fall into their laps! They meet visionary people by chance, or receive unexpected invitations to study or intern.
I think I at least work hard, but lack some luck. However, today’s lecture changed my view. A professor gave a lecture. Although it was a little difficult and I got lost in the second half, a senior of mine mentioned a paper, “DiffusionNFT,” and was curious about its relationship to the method in the lecture. “Fortunately,” I had read that paper! She had other things to attend to and had to leave early, so she couldn’t continue the discussion. I got an “opportunity” to follow up on her question and explain the paper’s algorithm in more detail on her behalf, carrying the discussion forward (though I could only explain the algorithm and couldn’t fully follow the professor’s analysis of it). The professor was interested in that topic.
Did I gain any rewards from that process? Nothing, exxcept acknowledgement—acknowledgement of the knowledge and understanding I had accumulated over time. If I hadn’t read enough papers, I couldn’t have known what they were referring to or explained the algorithm intuitively to the professor.Similarly, my friend is a bold, almost reckless person and never hesitates to connect with anyone. His character is like that, so he does it naturally.
This motivates me to keep working on deep thinking and accumulation. This time, the chance encounter was a positive one, but I believe the same applies to setbacks: the knowledge and understanding I accumulate can help me turn those into opportunities too.
When enough effort has been devoted, odds become opportunities. Luck, in turn, is part of your calibre.