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Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by LeifCarrotson on Thursday February 02, 2023 @09:49AM (#34627208)
That's because backgammon is a reasonably well-balanced game.

There's exactly zero guarantee that our society or life in general is similarly well-balanced.

It seems to be a lot more like "Candy Land" or "Chutes and Ladders" for many people.

Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by credit_guy on Thursday February 02, 2023 @10:11AM (#34627562)
> There's exactly zero guarantee that our society or life in general is similarly well-balanced.

How come? Take Zuckerberg. He's the son of a dentist and a psychiatrist. Upper-middle class for sure. He will have better dice rolls in life than the son of a window cleaner from Queens, but he'll have about the same rolls as the sons of millions of other dentists and doctors and lawyers and senior software engineers. Still, he became a billionaire by the time he was 30, while most of his peers were lucky if they became millionaires by the same time.

But I know a lot of people who claim that Zuckerberg was just a lucky guy.

Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by rhino369 on Thursday February 02, 2023 @10:53AM (#34628275)
>But I know a lot of people who claim that Zuckerberg was just a lucky guy.

He isn't *just* lucky. But if theFacebook (a literal face book for harvard students) didn't go viral (which requires a great deal of luck), Mark Zuckerberg might be a middle manager at Google.

Of course there are a lot of people who couldn't execute if given that opportunity. Maybe very few who could.

But there are huge butterfly effects for these types of outlier outcomes in life.

Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by credit_guy on Thursday February 02, 2023 @07:30PM (#34635455)
> might be a middle manager at Google.

He would not have been only a "middle manager" at Google. Mark was (maybe still is) a 100x developer. He would have had a meteoric career at Google. By now, he would have $100 million in the bank.

Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by ktpecot on Thursday February 02, 2023 @11:05AM (#34628483)
I wouldn’t claim that he was lucky but upper middle class?

The guy went to Phillips Exeter for high school and was captain of the fencing team. Not exactly middle class.

Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by harimau777 on Thursday February 02, 2023 @11:54AM (#34629331)
There are numerous other hard working people from similar backgrounds who didn't become billionaires by the time he was 30. That suggests that he was lucky.
Re:The radical moral implications of luck in human life (2020) by mistermann on Thursday February 02, 2023 @09:52AM (#34627239)
Another noteworthy difference is that while both backgamnon and The Game of Life have rules, in backgammon all players are generally obligated to follow the rules.