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Hi,

We have all met mentally paralysed people impossibly waiting for good luck, and dismal faillures hiding their own responsibilities behind a delusion of truly bad luck. And when we do, we may be forgiven for believing and even stating, that there is no such thing as luck, and that we do not believe in luck.

And yet, plenty of things happen without any uncontrived causes, specifically without there being anyone who can reasonably be blamed, or, as the case may be, praised. Whether we use the word 'luck', or the word 'chance' or any other synonym, there seems to be a place in life for events that just, well, happen.

The cardinal principle that every event has a rational explanation or natural cause, goes back at least to Leibniz, a contemporary of Isaac Newton. Each of them in his own way invented the calculus, and neither of them lived to see the development of an adequate theory of partial differential equations.

Why partial differential equations? Because they teach us that some, indeed most, initial/boundary-value problems, are NOT well-posed, and this proves that many of the things we take to be events do not, for mathematical reasons, have causes.

Now Leibniz and Newton can be excused for believing in ubiquitous causation, in our day such a belief constitutes a symptom of inadequate mathematical general knowledge.

The reality of chance/luck is a price we pay for having describable order in the universe.


Tataa!

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Hi,

Most companies that are ever started go bust, and there should be reasons for this. Some of these reasons should allow generalisations into useful rules-of-thumb. Unfortunately, almost all that is written (as far as I have been able to find) on the subject, consists of puerile paeans/panegyrics for the dwindling minority that have made it to success. Not that there aren't any common denominators for them, only that luck plays an important role, while the heroic tales never acknowledge this. Abstaining from typical mistakes indubitably also plays a role.

Having the right "attitude" has little or nothing to do with success. Attitudes do not spring forth from a vacuum. Wishful thinking plus luck can result in smashing success. The best attitude in the world combined with really rotten luck can lead to utter failure.

There are no all-embrasive rules-of-thumb, but anectodes do not have to be tendentious. I would like to see/read a long list of alternating success and failure, and be allowed to draw my own conclusions without having some pat philosophy rammed down my throat.

Yes.


Tataa!

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Hi,

I woke at a decent hour to a lengthy agenda, and behold a miracle: I got through it. Hours chasing various civil servants over the phone, at a four hour stretch. Now when I'm in the right mind, I'm quite ok with having plenty of things to do, overlapping and all. But now that I have renounced my delusional make-believe dreamland, my simultaneous capacity has gone out the window. Would be amusing if it weren't so embarrassing.

Having done that, I made good on my promise to go for a two hour hike. I don't have shoes made for that kind of thing, so I believe my PE-virtue, is laced with the vice of self-injury, in a minor way. So be it.

Came back home at 6pm, fed the cats, fed self, rang x-wife, and now I'm free to pick up on volume 4 of Edgar Morin's fascinating multi-volumed work 'la méthode'. This man is a genius, and the work is highly recommended.

Tataa!

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Hi,

Last night I gave myself permission to read until I felt really, really sleepy. This morning I allowed myself to doze on in bed until 10am. Now I feel fine, although voices in my head insist I should have dragged myself up no later than 7am, Well, screw those voices.

Also I'm giving myself one hour to "wake into the day". Self-denial, working against my will, does make me feel virtuous, but it also make me depressed. I feel much less depressed now than I've felt in months.

On the other hand, indulgence, is a risky proposition. I have real and important projects. For one thing I must file an application for 'rent support', which is to say I can get, in effect, a lower rent. For ten years I've split the rent down the middle, but those days are no more. I really need that assistance. And for another thing I need to get into an occupational project, because by now I know I just can't make it alone with nothing official to do during the day.

Rhetorically speaking I have to prove several things:

1) that I'm not a hopeless drunk. That's why I go to a clinic twice a week for antabus
and breathanalysis.

2) that I can stick to a time schedule, which is why I need the occupational project.

3) that I can attain and keep a decent weight, which is why I exercise a lot and regularly.


And much besides, so if you have the heart, please to wish me all the luck in the world.


Tataa!

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Our marriage lasted close on ten years, which means I had something like three thousand and five hundred days to figure love out. I did no such thing, and now feel if you fail once or twice, by all means try again, BUT when you fail 3500 times, take the hint.


Tataa!