How to increase your surface area for luck
Perceptions of the advice
- Several readers see the piece as re-packaged self‑help/networking advice: “grow your network,” “act like the job you want,” “say yes more.”
- Others like it because it frames things as memorable mindsets (curiosity, giving first, airing weirdness), which they feel are easier to recall and act on.
- One critique is that it’s fuzzy and unstructured: you can burn out chasing “microlucks” without real progress unless you’re more strategic about where you look for luck.
Hosting events and social serendipity
- Strong support for “host events”: hosting is seen as higher‑leverage than passively attending, and many note that most scenes lack enough organizers.
- Concrete example: a weekly “project night” where people bring personal projects led to a thriving community and steady inflow of new people.
- Some pushback: coordinating people is exhausting, cancellations are common, and managing others can feel like “herding.”
Curiosity, authenticity, and personality fit
- Multiple commenters credit intense curiosity as central to their success; others feel stuck because curiosity doesn’t easily translate into sharable output or career change.
- “Air your weirdness” resonates: hiding quirks is seen as counterproductive, though there’s a caution against faked eccentricity.
- Introverts worry the model implicitly assumes extreme extroversion; suggested workaround is “role‑playing” an extrovert persona at events.
Luck, privilege, and preparation
- Big thread on structural luck: being born in a rich country with computers is framed as a massive, often squandered advantage.
- Some argue success is mostly about seizing opportunities given your starting point; others insist initial conditions dominate outcomes and Western narratives underplay this.
- A reconciliatory view: luck delivers opportunities randomly; work, skill, and preparation determine whether you can use them.
Risk, failure, and strategy
- Debate over “fortune favors the bold”: one side urges more risk‑taking and not overestimating imagined dangers; another stresses underappreciated catastrophic risks.
- Idea of “bulk positive randomness”: increase variance where downside is small (meeting people, trying projects), reduce it where downside is large (health, safety).
- Some advocate studying failures and “non‑ergodic” dynamics (avoid ruin) rather than obsessing over copying rare success stories.
Concept and origins of “luck surface area”
- Commenters reference an earlier formulation: luck ≈ doing × telling—build real things and talk about them publicly.
- Compared to that, the article is seen by some as drifting toward style and mindset, away from concrete “build in public” and “be visible” tactics.