If you won the lottery?

Part of why we work is because we enjoy it, and part of why we work is because we have to. If you are lucky, and have worked hard to get there, maybe you do a job where you enjoy most of what you do.

But there are always the annoying bits. The bits you have to do either because there is no one else to do them, or because it would take you much longer to explain to someone what you want than to do it yourself. Maybe you are unlucky, lazy, or stuck in a job that has more of these annoying bits than the good stuff.

So, what would you do if you won the lottery?

Firstly, would you be able to put up with the rubbish to get the good bits of a job when the financial incentive wasn't there any more? Are the good bits incentive enough?
I don't think that you could just buy your way into all really rewarding experiences. I get the feeling you either need to be very good at eliminating the irritating things by doing them really efficiently or you have to suck it up. But maybe, if you had won the lottery, you wouldn't have the patience to suck it up?

The other thing is... everyone would expect handouts, and you would start struggling to differentiate between friends and moochers. You may even have some who are both.

Maybe getting lucky isn't so lucky?

Hmmm... nah, I would make a plan ;-)

Fooled By Randomness

I finished reading Nassim Taleb's book Fooled By Randomness. It was an interesting read. He does come across as a little preachy and yet because he is self-defacing you can't really accuse him too much of that.

I think that (despite the fact that he is probably a very irritating guy to be around), the book does bring up a lot off issues that people don't think about enough.

One of the things he looks at is how we tend to put people up on the back of repeated success (when that success may be luck.) I think a good dose of self doubt is pretty useful. We obviously like to think that we are were we are because of skill and hard work. Realising that it can easily be taken away is probably a good perspective to have.

Like I said in my previous post on the book... I liked Popper's idea of having bold conjectures and then attacking them.

It is a mind shift though. Looking at why you may have been lucky, and what you can do to mitigate the risk of everything falling apart. Looking at why you are probably wrong, and trying to stress test your ideas to see if they will fall apart.

I am mixing ideas here. But the book does make you think.

Next book... `The Google Story'. So far (50 pages in) it isn't all that well written but the story is compelling. Sounds like it would be an amazing company to work for.