Luck, privilege, and putting yourself in other’s shoes

Luck plays a more important role than we like to admit

I am incredibly struck by our unwillingness to acknowledge the role that luck has in our lives. To me luck is a phenomenon that is out of our control but has a direct impact on the outcomes we desire. When working towards a goal we are told to not count on luck and to work our hardest so that the merits of our work propel us forward. I think that this is sound advice. Someone who is diligent usually is more resilient during hard times and can move forward faster during good times. Despite this there are forces so powerful that it feels like your luck has run out, and it’s a direct indictment against you rather than your circumstances.

During this especially challenging time in healthcare research, I am trying my hardest to take inventory of what is in my control, what is out of it, and trying my hardest to funnel energy into goals and activities which feel actionable. This also involves me funneling my energy away from activities which feel like they center circumstances incredibly out of my control. A balanced and clear-eyed perspective is incredibly important for this assessment. Achieving a goal is a combination of talent and luck, but the opportunities that come your way are easy to overlook if you do not pay attention.

Empathy is connected to our understanding of luck. Many people overestimate how much of what they value is a result purely of their hard work, and not the circumstance you are born into and opportunities you have been presented. That lack of acknowledgement compounded with insecurity can lead to a personality that I really dislike, someone who is both incredibly proud and uninformed. Although disliking this combination of traits is core to who I am, I suppose that I also need to be conscious of what it is like to be born into a situation where the tailwinds behind you are so strong you might struggle to ever feel what it’s like to be in a downward spiral. That safety-net could be outside of someone’s control, just as much as a lack of opportunity is outside the control of another.

Luck, circumstances, and opportunity all can work together, and can be amplified by hard work. I think that making this easier to understand requires the right incentives to reward empathy. For example, we raise money for government programs through taxes, which are something a lot of people hate. When we take essential things for granted, it can create a disconnect between the public benefits of a functioning tax system and the immediate impact revenue has on people. This disconnect can lead to discontent. Many people would not like to build their a municipal water system on entirely on their own dime, but when things work well it is easy to take them for granted. Entering a time where there is a lot more rhetoric around the inefficiencies and lack of benefit of government programs, I am eager to see the solutions that are proposed. I hate the idea of promoting a “scarcity mindset” to put us on a path towards progress, because only a select group of people can insulate themselves well enough from the public to not have to work alongside their neighbors to get the resources they need.

Our future (complicated) problems will take more collaboration, and that collaboration will take even more empathy in the face of more inequity. Understanding the importance of luck and privilege is key to this.