Can You Learn to Be Lucky?: Why Some People Seem to Win More Often Than Others
Written by Karla Starr
Narrated by Arielle Siegel
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A talented journalist reveals the hidden patterns behind what we call "luck"—and shows us how we can all improve outcomes that only appear to be random.
"Do you believe in luck?" is a polarizing question, one you might ask on a first date. Some of us believe that we make our own luck. Others see inequality everywhere and believe luck is the only possible explanation. Karla Starr has third answer: "random" outcomes have predictable causes; we call them lucky because their traces are so faint.
In this groundbreaking book, Starr traces wealth, health, and happiness back to subconscious neurological processes, blind cultural assumptions, and tiny details you're in the habit of overlooking. Each chapter blasts open the hardware behind an outcome you thought was random and shows how to hack it. For instance:
- You can beat the 10,000 hour rule if you pick the right skill at the right time, and have the right resources to train.
- Your resume can't override the gut-level assumptions a potential employer makes about you based on the last employee who happens to look similar.
- People make assumptions about your intelligence, kindness, and trustworthiness based on cues that have nothing to do with these traits.
Starr ends each chapter with two liberating possibilities: Either harness the world's invisible biases to work to your advantage, or recruit your personal strengths to overcome these external factors. By ending the guessing game about how luck works, Starr allows you to improve your fortunes while expending minimal effort.
Karla Starr
Karla Starr has written for O, The Oprah Magazine; The Atlantic; Slate; Popular Science; and appeared on CBS Sunday Morning. A member of the National Association of Science Writers and the recipient of a Best Science/Health award from the Society of Professional Journalists, her first book, Can You Learn to Be Lucky? Why Some People Seem to Win More Often Than Others, was named a Fast Company Best Book of the Year. She writes at KStarr.com and lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Reviews for Can You Learn to Be Lucky?
6 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Interesting concept and excellent stories, but the stories and studies used to support the thesis seemed a bit cherry picked
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A well-researched and readable motivational book which, though it repeatedly acknowledges the role of privilege and happenstance in finding success, makes some suggestions for improving the odds--that is, how you can go about counteracting the influence of bad luck and adopting the positive (if unearned) attitude of the privileged. Ultimately, it's a "power of positive thinking" approach with some good general suggestions, but it has a heck of a good bibliography.