Robert H. Frank's Views On Luck

Pascal’s Wager has been argued to be impractical because our beliefs are often not in our control. This argument is

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the small village, at first, seems to be lovely, full of tradition, with the townspeople fulfilling their civic duties, but instead this story is bursting with contrast. The expectations that the reader has are increasingly altered. The title of this short story raises hope, for in our society the term “lottery” typically is associated with winning money or other perceived “good” things. Most people associate winning a lottery with luck, yet Jackson twists this notion around and the luck in this village is with each of the losers.

His survival is heavily influenced by every choice he makes, from ignoring the exhortations to escape impending danger to choosing to stay with his father in spite of difficulties. His experience with the Holocaust directly shapes his role as a frontline fighter for recognition of Holocaust victims. In moving to Canada, I also shaped my role in society. My skills, such as playing sports; hobbies, such as reading; and characteristics, such as persistence and studious attitude have all developed due to my moving to Canada. My exposure to a life so plentiful in opportunities has also caused me to take many things for granted. Events in people’s lives shape who they become. Some of these circumstances are brought about by the decisions of others, while the majority of occurrences are caused by deliberate choices. These decisions can shape destiny in a life-or-death situation or a can be like a small, yet equally profound, choice to smile at a stranger. While some decisions are out of one’s hands, a conscious effort to have a positive outlook on life can still influence destiny. Like a rudder, daily decisions made with a positive mentality can steer people to a prosperous life. It does not do well to dwell on what may have happened, but rather on how the life one creates can be consequential in further extending the development of

Luck is many times considered silly or just part of someone’s imagination, but it can really play a big role in what becomes of an individual. In the first chapter, titled “The Matthew Effect”, we

According to Marian Erickson, “Most of life is choices, and the rest is pure dumb luck.” Real people’s lives depend on this quote everyday, which leads to the outcome of each problem individuals face. In the passages, characterization of the main personas helps one understand the theme. Conflict and symbolism also help lead to the overall idea that life is not always guaranteed to be full of success. The book The Other Wes Moore, the poem “If,” and the informational text “The Art of Resilience” all share a common theme of how choices and luck contribute to the success of life.

It seems to most that those who have money have it all. They should buy all the unnecessary “junk” that one might find pleasure in owning, take everything for granted and view lower-class individuals as a group of wanna-bes. Think again. S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, very important propositions are portrayed through the writing techniques which link to another piece of writing “Poverty and Wealth” written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Just because you have everything, doesn’t mean you understand it's worth. Different classes have different experiences, allowing elaboration on the different characters.

Joseph Conrad once said, “It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck”. Nailer, the main character of Paolo Bacigalupi’s book Ship Breaker, wasn’t born lucky, he was born a ship breaker. Ship breakers are child and adult laborers who spend their days starving, poor, and working away to take the anything valuable off old ships for the big companies. Throughout Nailer’s life, he has suffered through various unfortunate events. However, with a strong belief of luck and having other superstitions, his life becomes more manageable. In Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi demonstrates that being superstitious and believing in various degrees of luck allows people to more easily feel in control of uncontrollable situations.

The use of the word “lucky” shows irony. They were all suffering. None of the Jews were lucky. Through that text we can confirm the lack of comfort and opportunity they had. (positive & negative)

The author, for example, states on page 379 in paragraph six that “If time is the most precious thing, wasting time must the major prodigality as Richard says. Lost time is never recovered and time is never sufficient. Let us get up and engage ourselves in a variety of activities with less perplexity. Every person should strive to wake up early because laziness cases poverty. Poor Richard says that early to bed and early to rise makes one wealthy and wise”. The paragraph is ironical in nature because the speaker is a pauper yet he knows what it takes to be successful. The statement means that the working poor may not advance their status regardless of their knowledge on how to become

There are times in life that we attribute good luck to our hard work, dedication or talent but there are some other times when we can say that luck is just a chance that we get. As we can see on the work of this two authors James H. Austin the author of “Four kinds of chance” published in Saturday Review and Robert H. Frank author of “why luck matters much more than you think” published in The Atlantic (May 2016) they show the reader how chances can influence in different ways. After reading their work I consider Robert H Frank article more effectively fulfills his thesis.

When a person is lucky, it does not have to mean that they are fortunate with money. Luck is the chance for things to go the way you want them to go with out having any control over the situation. In The Rocking Horse Winner, Hester, the mother seems to believe that luck is strictly having money, and when there is no money, there is no luck. Hester's idea of luck meaning money brings forth the two ideas of greed and death throughout the story.

In the book “Strength in what remains” by Tracy Kidder, the main protagonist named Deo was a man that faced many hurdles in his life. From escaping the Genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, which was because of the domestic racial dispute between Hutus and Tutsi (groups of ethnic people) to his time in New york. Deo faced insurmountable odds and opposition. Despite this set back, it seemed as if providence was on Deos side, granting him countless fortunes and blessings. Many different factors can be attributed to Deo’s success but nevertheless, luck and his hard work was what paved his path forward. To attribute all of Deo’s success to luck would be to undermine the sheer willpower he possesses and his willingness

The second type of luck, circumstantial, was described as “luck in one’s circumstances – the kind of problems and situations one faces”, (Nagel, p.28). The drunken drivers’ example belongs to the third type of luck: resultant luck. To many philosophers, the third and fourth type of luck is accountable for one which deals with the causes and effects of action, as Nagel explains, “luck in how one is determined by antecedent circumstances, and luck in the way one’s action and projects turn out.”, (Nagel, p.28). The commonality of these four categories of luck is the idea that “one cannot be more culpable or estimable for anything than one is for that fraction of it which is under one’s control. It seems irrational to take or dispense credit or blame for matters over which a person has no control, or for their influence on results over which he has partial control.” (Nagel, p.28).

As an illustration, the author believes that the chance of winning the lottery is extremely slim, by stating, “Powerball lottery, for example, have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning the jackpot. That’s like putting into a hat the names of nearly everyone in the U.S. and hoping your name is pulled out”. (1) For this reason,

In today’s society we perceive the lottery as being a great fortune brought down upon you by Lady Luck. It is a serendipitous event, even if the person has done nothing to earn it. One would never see the lottery as an unfortunate occasion that occurred in your life because it is supposed to bring prosperity into your life. Also, one would not dare to think that winning the lottery would bring such repercussions as injury or death. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author could have used Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson as the town’s scapegoat due to their reluctance to change traditions, her horrible work ethic, and minority status as a woman.