cambraceres
03-22-2006, 06:53 AM
Hey people, so I was doing a bit of reading yeterday, and came across an interesting dialogue between Octavian and Lepidus. They were discussing luck, skill, and greatness. The conversation was recorded as a side note by Thucydides.
This discourse between the two autocrats centered on the concept that luck itself was the thing that conferred true greatness, and indicated honest status. It is natural and obvious that luck plays a huge role in what happens to us and our loved ones, and one can act correctly and still fail miserably because of luck and circumstance(Cesar Borgia).
Being a rational modern person, I typically dismiss such drivel off hand, but was compelled to consider the implications if such was taken to be true. What compelled me, was the fact that I'm lucky, and always have been. Not just kinda lucky, but stupid lucky, at the most important times. I have made many hasty decisions, been stupid on numerous occasions in defiance of my own discretion, and have yet to suffer even the lightest of reprimands or deleterious effects. This is not by any special effort of my own, it just naturally happens that no matter what happens, it happens at the right time. It isn't that bad things don't happen to me, they do. What's remarkable is the timing . When I know a bad thing or situation is about to come up, I immedaitely start looking for the mitigating factor that is invariably dropped in my lap.
Now I am thinking that this will do me ill in a sense, because I look for my crutch any time there is impending trouble, and every time it appears, and it seems now that the possibility itslef of fortune not going my way is fading. So this means I lose some incentive to prepare and give exaustive effort to what endeavor I should choose.
What I ask is, how does luck itself affect you and your lives, in a pervasive way? I know everyone will pull the right card every now and then, unless you're miserably weak-tight, but that's not so much what I'm saying. What trends in your life can be attributed to luck, or if not luck something other than your own rational faculty?
I have always prided myself on working harder than my peers, and have done so in many cases. I atributed my successes to this, but then upon inspection, found that so much of what is identified with me has been given to me straigh from the hand of fortune, with requisite work of course. This shakes my view of the world, is it really just dumb luck?
Cambraceres
This discourse between the two autocrats centered on the concept that luck itself was the thing that conferred true greatness, and indicated honest status. It is natural and obvious that luck plays a huge role in what happens to us and our loved ones, and one can act correctly and still fail miserably because of luck and circumstance(Cesar Borgia).
Being a rational modern person, I typically dismiss such drivel off hand, but was compelled to consider the implications if such was taken to be true. What compelled me, was the fact that I'm lucky, and always have been. Not just kinda lucky, but stupid lucky, at the most important times. I have made many hasty decisions, been stupid on numerous occasions in defiance of my own discretion, and have yet to suffer even the lightest of reprimands or deleterious effects. This is not by any special effort of my own, it just naturally happens that no matter what happens, it happens at the right time. It isn't that bad things don't happen to me, they do. What's remarkable is the timing . When I know a bad thing or situation is about to come up, I immedaitely start looking for the mitigating factor that is invariably dropped in my lap.
Now I am thinking that this will do me ill in a sense, because I look for my crutch any time there is impending trouble, and every time it appears, and it seems now that the possibility itslef of fortune not going my way is fading. So this means I lose some incentive to prepare and give exaustive effort to what endeavor I should choose.
What I ask is, how does luck itself affect you and your lives, in a pervasive way? I know everyone will pull the right card every now and then, unless you're miserably weak-tight, but that's not so much what I'm saying. What trends in your life can be attributed to luck, or if not luck something other than your own rational faculty?
I have always prided myself on working harder than my peers, and have done so in many cases. I atributed my successes to this, but then upon inspection, found that so much of what is identified with me has been given to me straigh from the hand of fortune, with requisite work of course. This shakes my view of the world, is it really just dumb luck?
Cambraceres