Luck is code for the invisible forces that guide our lives, like privilege, faith, and optimism. I wanted to read a book that looked at these factors from an objective lens and couldn’t find it—so I wrote it.
Luck is what we call success when we can’t see all of the factors that go into it; it looks sudden and random. Unpredictable, uncontrollable things influence us in predictable, self-defeating ways that often escape our awareness. Can You Learn to Be Lucky? is a guide on how to improve your life despite the world’s randomness.
“A clever, captivating read on how seemingly random events sometimes have predictable patterns behind them. If you believe chance favors the prepared mind, this is the book to prepare your mind.”
Adam Grant, author of Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg
It’s on sale, I think!
“Luck seems elusive, a force well out of our control. But in this fun and persuasive book, Karla Starr explains how the choices we make shape our fate- and offers smart, science-based advice for making luck break our way.”
Daniel H. Pink, author of The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward and Drive
Background
I’ve always been interested in… well, everything. My intellectual superheroes are independent researchers who can connect the dots between disciplines—not academics who spend decades honing the politics of the publication process. Academia, by definition, means being surrounded by other academics for years, weakening the flexibility of thought that’s required for wisdom.
I wanted to research a book that combined two of my obsessions:
- Success manuals giving simplistic advice like “be optimistic.”
- More thoughtful books like The Black Swan, which looked at success from a bigger perspective and acknowledged the randomness of it all
So is success the product of these internal traits? Or are our fates just at the whim of the cosmos? What links these two things?
After all of these years, speaking about luck is still one of my favorite things to do!