Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[wombat]

I read this post on John Scalzi's blog a while ago and thought it would make a good contribution to this recurring conversation. I didn't post it and restart the discussion in hopes that it would actually never come up again, but like prescriptive grammar, obviously this one is never going to die. Here's just a bit of it:

What is luck? At the end of the day, it’s the good things that happen to you that you simply don’t or can’t control. Stepping away from a curb the second before a car you didn’t see barrels right over where you just were. Finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk. Stepping into a restaurant for a bite to eat and seeing an old friend you lost contact with years ago just before she steps out the door. These are all some obvious examples of luck. It works the other way too; you can step toward a curb just as a car you didn’t see plows into it and into you; then you are unlucky.

In either case the event is not something you consciously or purposefully controlled. You can argue left and right about how much “luck” has to do with any particular event: In the case of me getting lucky with Old Man’s War, I still wrote the book, and I still had, for the time, a robust presence online which meant it had a better chance to be seen than perhaps other similar novel presented online would have. Both of these had a significant impact on my luck. Be that as it may, ultimately I had no control over Patrick Nielsen Hayden going to my site, reading the entire novel on his own time, and deciding to make an offer on the book outside of the usual submission channels. Had he not decided to do just one of those things (and particularly the last one), it’s pretty obvious that my life would be a different one than I have now.

There are things you have no control over, and they do matter. You have to do the work, obviously; your novel or whatever won't be successful if you don't write it. But just doing the work, no matter how good it is, doesn't guarantee anything. It's necessary, but not sufficient. I can see why it would be comforting to believe there is no such thing as luck, that you have complete control over your fate, but I don't see how you can look at the universe we live in and actually believe that.

[jaydub]

People a lot smarter and more successful than me have long observed what I perceive to be true about "luck"

“Luck is not chance, it is toil” (Emily Dickenson)
“I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” (Thomas Jefferson)
“Chance favors the prepared mind” (Louis Pasteur - quoting Seneca(!) )

I really like the last one - there is deep irony in the fact that a 1st Century Roman captured the essence of luck is, yet many people still haven't learned the lesson and wait for fortunes to drop in their lap.  You can actually expand the idea by considering "good luck" and "bad luck"; the latter occurs when you haven't done the hard work of preparation and opportunity comes knocking.

[jay-ell]

I'ma just leave this right here:

[theinevitable]

Plus plus plus: if you do sack the fuck up and flip burgers, people make That Face when you tell them you're flipping burgers. And or straight up say "wtf, get a real job."

[Arachno-capitalist]

The difference between touamb and the rest of the internet is that we can just agree to disagree. My system has worked for me your system has

[littlefallsmets]

Judging a system as functional by the fact that it works wildly well for a few people is not my approach to the matter.

But yeah, I think we might be at an agree-to-disagree point. Just wanted to clarify my position.

[wombat]

If this drags on much longer I am going to split it into another thread.

[theinevitable]

At work today, I thought about how you are both in the right industries for your perspective.

in entertainment/writing/LFM's various ventures, it is obviously the case that you can work your goddamn ass off all your life and end up being a bitter middle school drama teacher.

in A-Cap's field, it seems (from my limited perspective) that talent is recognized and rewarded in a more consistent way. If you are really good at Finance, this will be Recognized in the form of dollar bills.

[theinevitable]

thing that is upsetting me, and is relevant to Aug's past:

they are gutting the Women's building. KWUR is being kicked out. They are either moving to the basement of a dorm until that dorm is knocked down, or to the horrible new student center that everyone hates.

[littlefallsmets]

This is a question that strikes me:

Why ain't you trying to follow your bliss and work in radio, Dan?

Is it just the terrible job market in radio right now or... is it something you really only loved as a hobby or... what?

[theinevitable]

The thing I liked about working in radio wasn't necessarily the radio part.

I am actually applying to some jobs at the local NPR station, doing business office type stuff, but NPR is pretty close to the opposite of KWUR.

What I liked about KWUR was working with people I really liked, doing projects I cared about, having meetings where everyone talks about their projects and you think "awesome, this is so great, everyone is doing great stuff." I sent out emails and wrote blog posts and called record promoters to shoot the shit. People would ask me questions and I would help them. I lucked (yes, lucked) into a position where I got to decide things, attend meetings, represent the station, teach new people, etc.

When I watch movies or TV shows where there is a team of weird people who are brought together, and by the end they are best friends but their project is done and they have to part, going their separate ways because that is what you do in life, I think of KWUR.

So basically I want to work at some kind of crazy small business. Or something. Someplace where there are lots of weirdos who know about weird things, and come together to share their interests and create something cool and great.






I am trying to find a good avatar image. This is not working.

TLDR: I don't want to work at a radio station, I want to start a radio station.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I too was a big college radio guy, and thought about going that direction after college, but the difference between non-commercial/college radio and commercial radio is like night and freaking day. There's a few dream jobs out there at stations like KEXP or WXPN, but by and large, I figured out that if I went to work for a commercial radio station I would be frustrated and miserable rather quickly.

[theinevitable]

Carlos, remind me what you do now?

(huge radio rant deleted.)
Basically, I do not trust the current station manager to do a good job of transitioning to the new space. I do not like her and she does not "get it."

This is why I should have moved far away. Worrying about my former college radio station is not productive or good.

[wombat]

This is why I should have moved far away. Worrying about my former college radio station is not productive or good.

At least you know this. That is a good first step.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Carlos, remind me what you do now?

I manage IT projects for a big IT consulting firm.