How to Get Lucky

[Zukin]

The human brain is amazingly good at detecting what it wants to find. When you are hungry, your brain focuses on finding food. When you are thirsty, it looks for liquid. The problem is, your brain can become so focused on seeing what it expects to see, it misses things that are obvious but unexpected. Lucky people tend to have a somewhat relaxed view of life. They are less concerned with mundane details and more prone to look at the bigger picture. Ironically, by trying less, they see more.

Seeing The Gorilla - Forbes.com

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Thank you for that much needed reminder.

[Calculusaurus]

What a great article. Bound to leave a lasting impression.

[Sam988]

Nice article... i wonder why i had not found it on Forbes before, considering i'm a forbaholic.

[elliot]

Great read, thank you for sharing it with us all.

[gerber]

Yes, a great read. I believe the title for the song 'Wot Gorilla?' by Genesis (Wind & Wuthering, 1976) was inspired by the experiment mentioned in the article.
I recently listened to the audio book The Luck Factor by Brian Tracy and he mentions some of the same things as the author of the article (who apparently also wrote a book called The Luck Factor).

[Mark Lapierre]

I love that Gorilla experiment.

[Lisa McGregor]

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
L

[Joy]

*edit* (oops)

[180]

Great article!

Thank you so much. Actually today When I woke up I started thinking this EXACT thing. How come some people just have all the luck. And in the context of this article it makes total sense. Now I see the light. Halleauh

[jaydeschizo]

I have just decided I should expand my social network more. Thank you very much for sharing this!

[Phil Parkinson]

All makes sense... but it doesn't seem exhaustive.... there must be more ways to improve your luck than that?

What about people who work hard... are they more lucky than people who are lazy if everything else remains the same?

P x

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by Phil Parkinson

All makes sense... but it doesn't seem exhaustive.... there must be more ways to improve your luck than that?

What about people who work hard... are they more lucky than people who are lazy if everything else remains the same?

If luck is a factor of awareness of opportunities, then I'd guess working hard wouldn't make a difference. Working smart would, if that means looking out for opportunities and taking advantage of them.

[Dan.Linehan]

I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it... The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.

- Samuel Goldwyn

[Ilya]

Great article and great experiment. This is great aid when explaining how "magic" or IM works for rational people. The ability of our mind to focus on one things and ignore the other is amazing.
I've used this effect for years not go get luck, but to find best solutions. But I can see how what happened to me can look like utter luck for the most people. For example, when I'm in the zone the busses, trains and other forms of public transportations are there for me They always arrive perfectly in time for me. That and the traffic lights

As for the video, the author of the article is using it incorrectly.
If the instruction about watching white guys was not given, most of the people would notice the gorilla. With the instruction the attention is fully focused on the white team and the white color. I guess, the people would easily spot a white angel walking into the scene. So this is not the valid argument that people are filtering out something unexpected. They are just philtering out all the noise, which in this case is the color black.They filter out both the gorilla and the black team - I'm sure no one would be able to say how many times the ball is passed withing the black team.

But the stage effect of the video is huge, there is no arguing about that.