Success and luck
by Robert H. Frank · first published 2016
75% recommend25% neutral
"A New York Times economics columnist explores the findings in recent years by scientists who have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life situations than most people imagine, showing how a more accurate understanding of this discovery could lead to better, richer and fairer economies and societies,"--NoveList.
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Fooled by randomness is his best book, but it's probably getting replaced by Robert Frank's book "Success and Luck" on my recommendation list for that topic. It's just a good reminder that you might be luckier than you think and that skill doesn't fully explain the successful achievements. Black Swan is seriously…
on “Skin in the Game – chapter drafts by Nassim Taleb” ↗BTW, might want to get your dad that book the interview was about (Robert Frank: "Success and Luck"). It's a good read, and you'll have something more to discuss :-)
on “Don’t Tell Your Friends They’re Lucky” ↗…born - you might not call it luck, but it’s certainly not something you’ve chosen or earned) plays a much bigger role than most people think it does. Source and book recommendation: Robert H. Frank: Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167404/su... > In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in…
on “Career advice for people with bad luck” ↗> quite confused at [broadly this is just luck], what studies? I would recommend reading Success and Luck [1]; it's well-researched. >> relying on this dynamic entrenches privilege > this is quite ridiculous, this is only believable if you consider... There are pretty good [2] papers [3] about it, which…
on “Billionaires Build” ↗…merit can lead to highly unequal outcomes in which success is only tenuously linked to merit. There are other models yielding similar results, as for example outlined in Robert Frank's enjoyable book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. I don't find the mechanism entirely implausible, but that's a longer discussion. These models are an important counterpoint to naive "Economism" [1] models…
on “The Role of Luck in Life Is Still Misunderstood” ↗Robert Frank's book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy is another enjoyable book about this (and supports your argument for some form of government redistribution).
on “The Role of Luck in Life Is Still Misunderstood” ↗I'd recommend Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. (2016) by economist Robert H. Frank. He details how much of success is luck. Pertinent xkcd, Survivorship Bias: https://xkcd.com/1827/
on “The annoying habits of highly effective people” ↗…a lot of libertarian propaganda in it. However, the statistics are sound. Taleb: Not a huge fan of Taleb. The point about the role of chance is much better made, in my view, by Robert H. Frank in his Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy.
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗An insightful book that touches on these issues in more depth is Robert H. Frank's Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. Good argument for the estate tax, by the way. https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10663.html
on “Why brilliant people lose their touch” ↗Yes, not only good old Rawls, but many contemporary writers make arguments about the limits of meritocracy. Some books I can recommend: Robert H. Frank: Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167404/su... https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/06/28/book-rev... Michael Sandel: The Tyranny…
on “How People Get Rich Now” ↗Pertinent book recommendations: Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy, Robert H. Frank [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc77k7k] Great read, entertaining and insightful, many anecdotes, and also simulation results. The Tyranny…
on “Michael Lewis and the parable of the lucky man taking the extra cookie (2017)” ↗Read Success and Luck by Robert Frank instead
on “Skin in the Game – chapter drafts by Nassim Taleb” ↗This is a big point that Robert Frank makes in "Success and Luck" (the book this interview is about). Being born in a developed country is one of the luckiest things you can have happen to you. He talks about his time in Nepal for the Peace Corps and a man who worked…
on “Don’t Tell Your Friends They’re Lucky” ↗There's another pertinent book, by the way, Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H. Frank, in which he highlights how much the concepts of "normal" and "luxury" are really contingent and depending on our environment. Spending some…
on “Sleep Is the New Status Symbol” ↗