Thursday, January 20, 2005

Good Luck and Bad Luck

There is this belief within the gambling circle that the more often you win or lose, the more likely your luck will change on the next try. Halimbawa ay sa toss-coin. si player X ay tumataya sa head 10 times on a row. Ngayon sa pang-eleventh na toss-coin ay ginawa nyang tail ang taya nya kasi ang reasoning nya ay kanina pa sya head kaya malamang na maging tail yung kasunod. Ang tawag dito ay gambler's fallacy. Fallacy ito kasi kahit na 100 toss pa yan ay hindi naman nagbabago ang probability ng coin.

Ganito kasi ang thinking ng iba sa atin. Swerte, swerte, swerte, swerte, swerte. After ng hanay ng swerte ay iisipin naman na malas na ang kasunod kasi puro swerte na ang dumating sa atin. Kung iisipin, logical nga naman. May araw at may ulan, may summer at may winter, may tagsarap at may taghirap. Natural na dapat ay merong panahon ng swerte at may panahon ng malas. This, for us, is also a fallacy.

Having a good career is not luck but a product of hard work. Having good grades is not luck but a product of perseverance. Having a good lovelife is not luck but a product of commitment. Having a healthy lifestyle is not luck but a product of dedication.

Some people say that bad things happen to good people. Ang kontra ko naman dyan ay worst things happen to bad people. Part ng buhay ang mga pagsubok. Everybody has to face it one way or the other. Everyone who gives up will find a world full of bad luck and everyone who fights will have the good side of life. Death is not malas but a reality. It reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again. For what we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived.

Luck is just a human perception created by society. Walang swerte at malas nung panahon ng mga caveman. "Everything that can go wrong will go wrong" because everything that starts wrong will sometimes ends up wrong. Vice-versa rin naman yang "Murphy's law" na yan. "Everything that can go right will go right". In tagalog, "Lahat ng kumanan ay nasa kanan". Konting smile naman dyan....

So in short, what's your point?

No point. It's just disheartening for me to see good and brilliant people reducing their efforts and hard works to almost nothing and attributing their rewards to luck. Sayang naman, di ba? A "string of good luck" will never be followed by a "string of bad luck" unless one wants it to be.

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