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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4925695" data-attributes="member: 54707">I concur with what you are driving at RR (That always reminds me of the Reading Railroad, from my childhood). To an extent.But as with any mathematical equation you can never know those factors and variables for which you are unaware. For instance, using gravity influence equations you could calculate the potential orbit of a massive gas giant. But if your calculations do not accurately reflect the measured reality then obviously something is amiss. In this example it happens to be an invisible or undetected singularity too small to detect but which has a measure effect on orbital patterns. Does this mean the calculating equation is wrong? Not necessarily, or rather not in the strict sense. What it really means (in this imaginary case) is that the equations are incomplete and do not reflect the influence of a variable which is real, but is also undetected and unknown.Unknown variables can have both positive and negative effects depending upon what we are measuring, how we are measuring, why we are measuring, and what types of outcomes we hope to achieve. But I specifically did not mention either outliers or unknown variables (nor did I specifically define Luck, or Good Fortune) - because I didn't want this essay to devolve into a complicated morass of argument and debate between myself and others about what specifically is luck or fortune - and into an argument about unknown or unforeseen variables that might or might not effect outcomes. People can have those arguments as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't bother me, it just doesn't interest me specifically because I know that after the spilling of countless innocent electrons there will still be no resolution to the debate nor even absolute agreement upon the specific definitions.This is also true also for any mathematical model. Mathematical models cannot by very nature include or account for every possible variable in every possible circumstance because if one did then one would only need one equation to resolve every possible problem. We'd have not only a Universal Field Theory, but a Universal Field Equation. That could account for everything. Mathematical equations are by their very construction limited to addressing those very limited set of variables apparent to any given specific problem or situation. Therefore neither language, nor mathematics, can ever resolve the unknown or undetected or undisguised variable which lays either outside or undetected to the problem being discussed.My intent with this essay was to present practical, or some - I couldn't think of them all of course - methods of how to apply good fortune to both real life and gaming situations once I had drawn a generalized conclusion about what the equation was covertly implying in addition to what it was stating. (Even though that also is incomplete, as are all equations, because such equations never include the "unknown variable(s)," after all you don't know what that is. In most cases things like unknown variables don't matter, it depends upon scale, and so with things of an everyday scale or mundane scale unknown variables usually do not play a definitive role on outcome. But when you're talking cosmic scale, or quantum scale, or very nebulous and uncertainly defined (or undefined?) things like Luck, Love, Hope, Faith, Fortune, certain energy systems, gravitational influences, etc. then the unknown variable may very well be decisive, or at least problematic, as regards outcome.)But as I said I'm not adversely disposed towards discussions such as you Aura are hinting at (indeed such arguments may lead to some interesting and useful ideas and conjecture, which is the whole point of forensic debate as far as I'm concerned), I just don't think that in the end it will lead to a resolution.If only it worked that way AM. Actually I suspect I'd find the woman would wear me out with talk long before my arm tires, so what's the point? Still, I've never beaten a woman physically, but they've beaten me about the ears on numerous occasions. Then again over time I've learned that being lucky in an argument with a woman is best achieved by careful preparation and not being there in the first place. Maybe as you said, there's a bigger lesson in all of that. Luck be not lazy. And if a woman is coming for ya then it's luckiest to not be around.</blockquote>

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