What is bad luck anyways?

[Mr Wiggl3s]

Good luck is improbbible, such as getting with the hot girl, bad luck is when you find out she had herpies

[2.2 Straight six]

well, when people don't study and they fail an exam often they say "oh i have such bad luck" no, it's a lack of studying and the unwillingness to accept that they're the cause of the failure.

some people may just not be able to do stuff but i think it's just that people wont accept responsibility.

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by tommy_boy

Bad luck is an absence of good luck.

well, aren't you just the regular comedian...

[zx2guy]

i agree with mr wiggles on the good luck bad luck thing. i find good luck is ussually minor... like finding a dollar in your pants pocket, rarely are there extremes like winning the lotto, or getting the hot girl. bad luck however is ussally categorized in the more extreme and the lesser the event the better. like snapping off a head bolt in a motor that you have 80 % put back together, backing into the boss's car, getting pulled over because of something minor... and ticketed. many of us can deal with the broken lead, the not having a pen handy when a hot girl needs one. the word "luck" on dictionary.com is this:
The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events; fortune
Good fortune or prosperity; success
One's personal fate or lot
and i believe alot of it has to do with odds. a famous man once said, "with every breath the odds of something go further against you" pessimistic? yes... but who here hasnt had a case of the mondays... on wednesday.... and thursday... hell you had it on friday too... it was just a bad week. who here remembers pandora's box from greek mythology? when the box was opened death, disease, pestilence, greed, loathing, rage, ect came out. what is the one thing that was kept in the box? foreboding. luck is our hope going in odds with our own foreboding.

[drunken monkey]

bad luck is when you want to have something other than yourself to blame for things going wrong.

[RickwithaTbird]

you guys are looking at it all wrong I think. You're acting like everybody who calls something luck is a lazy ass. If we go back to the money in the pants pocket thing, I don't really consider that luck. That's not meaning the odds are against it happening.

I think the odds MUST be against the event in question, in order for it to be called luck. Like let's say you REALLLLYYY need 20 bucks more for a very good reason but you don't have it. Then you change your pants, and BAM! 20$ lies right in that pocket. That's good luck.

Bad luck could be like if you keep something around that you haven't needed in forever, and one day decide to throw it away, then the next day you need it. Or you're driving through a green light and some idiot side swipes you because they weren't paying attention. That's not your fault. Also, if you had left your house 1 minute later it wouldn't have happened. But you can't predict it. That's just bad luck.

That doesn't mean there is this aura of bad luck/good luck around you, it just means that the odds caught up with you. Luck of the draw. That's all it is.

but I agree if somebody says failing a test is bad luck, they're just dumb.

[zx2guy]

actually i recant how i said "odds" has alot to do with it... because im pretty sure "odds" Inlives are too complex to accurately calculate until after the fact... so its more like chaos theory. i mean its been proven (in chaos theory... and is pretty much the basic concept) that when you start w/ a very easy set of guidelines there will be a range of outcomes that are too astronomical to calculate. however you set a very lengthy set of guidelines and the outcome will simplify (solely because you are eliminating variables w/ each new guideline). but odds is a simpler way of looking at it. rick just said it too you cant predict it.
i think luck is more out of your control, but you can set yourself up for good luck (i know the failing the test is a bullshit way of looking at this but its the only one i can think of) say you are taking your finals tomorrow... and you catch a section in a chapter that was only mentioned but not covered. so you at least read over it,cuz its there. then on the test the next day there is an essay on that section... to me thats good luck. when you fail because of something thats out of you hands thats luck (or karma), however if you actively didnt do what you supposed to (didnt take notes, didnt listen to begin with, didnt study, ect) < then its not bad luck... its your own damn fault.

[windowpane]

Luck is what we generally call the low percentage of a probable outcome in any given situation so it really doesn't exist.

If you go for the extreme improbable, your at a roulette wheel winning and winning that's 'good luck', it is an anomally that you are picking the winning square over and over. Is that good luck no it is a very improbable outcome, but we don't think or speak like that, we do so in 'simpler' terms as we learn the association of luck to odds without the math when we are young. Only when you get older and learn more about the odds do you understand what 'luck' really is that is if you so choose to.