Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmS8oJ6aHjE
The Joe Rogan Experience you must get this a lot that people say things like uh I know I do this I do this in a kind of self-deprecating way I often say oh I've been lucky in this yeah and you know very well that some you know a lot of life is like for sure some of life is like being in the right place at the right time being able just being able-bodied but then a lot of it is and it's underplayed is is you also work hard yes like um and I realized some time ago that I I use because I'm born in bird and I I have that natural tendency to like under play something well I'm just lucky in that and somebody said to me you shouldn't do that you know you do work very hard and I thought yes but like saying well I've been lucky in that is a nice way to say to other people oh I haven't really had any input and you don't need to particularly either it's a sort of it's a it's a flattering thing to say to somebody else and which ignores which ignores what something actually I quote at the end of the book wonderful phrase of Branch Ricky I came across he said uh luck is the residue of design hmm luck is the residue of design like what a lot of what we call luck it has come about through something other than charms like so I used to say you're lucky to be born in America and on one level that's true which is like you could have been born in in the great pool things you could have been born born in Mogadishu and it'd be a lot worse but there's also something that covers up which is the luck is is that people before you made good choices that meant that you are in a situation which is more optimal and it's not simply luck that you have in America the right to freedom of speech like that's not simply like it's locking that you were born here as opposed to Mogadishu but it's not luck that America ended up with that situation it is it is the residue of design it's the consequence of men and women making good decisions
prudent decisions like not being crazily short termist setting up a state well you know there's a great description in a novel by Hillary mantel about the French Revolution and the first days of the meeting of the parliament after they've killed the king and she says um you know they wanted to talk about rights and she said she says I'm a paraphraging she says something like this was the day to talk about laws but rights were more attractive to talk about so they put off the discussion of laws for another day you know and that's how you get what you got in the terror and everything else and this is the thing is that what you we have to find a better way to understand what we often mean by luck you have luck in your life sometimes because other people have made good judgments that are effectively for you before your time yeah you know your politicians your family and others it's not just it's not just some wild whirly gig it's also make prudent decisions make wise decisions work hard and a lot more and you'll find that you are what we call lucky or luckier don't do any of that stuff put everything off all the time be lazy be um unmotivated um you know blame other people all the time for things that I think you could correct yourself and you will find you are the type of person that is described as unlucky it's it's it's it's and it's the same with countries there are countries we describe as unlucky like Venezuela was like they weren't just unlucky they had the people around [ __ ] unluckiest people in the world at the moment practically but like it became a and what we would call an unlucky country because politicians made catastrophic decisions you know they have yet they have the same energy sources uh same energy resources as Norway uh it's it's better to be in Norway than in Venezuela and there's a reason which is that people made better decisions and
we we're very unwilling to identify what those decisions are and what it is that leads to a good outcome or a bad outcome which is really strange because American exceptionalism was always predicated on the idea that you work hard and you can make something in this country there was a big part of the motto of what it meant to be an American yeah