I have a repeating to-do item in my Todoist: do something to increase luck.

To remind myself of the things I can do to get more lucky, I include the following subcategories:

  • Do something nice/kind
  • Meet someone new
  • Show up (purposefully vague)
  • Bring someone up (signal boost, advise, or otherwise help someone with less power than myself)
  • Put myself or my work out there (submit something, publicly speak up, etc.)

Those subcategories have evolved somewhat since I first performed my 30-day luck experiment. I’ve picked items that mesh well with my personality and that are easily actionable.

Some people do these things naturally everyday without a second thought. But I’ve had to train myself, and I still consider myself a luck beginner.

If I had to boil it down to two things, I would describe becoming more lucky as a combination of having more chances (more rolls of the dice) and generating more goodwill.

Generating Luck Subtracts from Efficiency

I recently read a great blog post by Tim Bray about the perils of pursuing efficiency, especially on an economic level. As businesses pursue efficiency, services become less personalized, less friendly, and more annoying. Workers become more prone to injury and enjoy their jobs less. Chasing efficiency essentially trades short-terms gains (lower payroll) for long-terms gains (customer and employee good will). Some businesses, like Zappos, have realized this and make a point for their customer service to be inefficient. It’s one of the reasons I buy 95% of my footwear from Zappos.

While reading Bray’s article I realized that all the things I do on a personal level to pursue luck are also inefficient. The luck-chasing activities take away from my billable hours, my writing time, and my music composition time. But they also potentially create more opportunities, generate more good will, and in the long-term generate more luck.

An ultimately, nothing is more efficient than getting lucky.

Please wear a mask, don’t congregate indoors unless, and stay healthy.