Favor Or Luck

The first comprehensive exploration of the nature and value of understanding, addressing burgeoning debates in epistemology and philosophy of science.

Tasked by the mad king to rescue a beautiful princess, guard and aspiring samurai Jimmy Olsen Sakamota must scour the strange and wonderful country of Wenapaj with the aid of an ancient robot, an overeager student, an aspiring screenwriter, a possessed doll, and a neophyte soldier. With his friends at his side, Jimmy may have just enough strength, skill, and luck to rescue Princess Sera from the dragon.

In this provocative book, Michael Mauboussin offers the structure needed to analyze the relative importance of skill and luck, offering concrete suggestions for making these insights work to your advantage by making better decisions.

This little book is a distillation of Richard Wiseman's research into how to lead a luckier life. Featuring much new material - including original 'charm' designs that will help you to stay lucky - as well as an overview of the four principles that make up The Luck Factor, this is a fun and accessible insight into the scientific principles of good fortune. Small enough to fit in your pocket, its contents are powerful enough to change your life!

The phrase 'God of Surprises' should not be an unfamiliar term to any Christian. Throughout Scripture, we read that God has acted in ways that, at times, seem to contradict logic. The problem for us is the logic that God seemingly contradicts is OUR logic, OUR approach to life, and how to live it. More to the point, WE are contradicting God's perfect logic, His plan, His desire for creation. As a result, we sometimes find ourselves saying,"Why me, Lord?" I've had my share of such missing-the-mark moments as an ordinary, trying-hard-but-sin-cursed member of the human race. But the last Why moment resulted in my writing this message. Why would the creator and sustain-er of the universe want me to experience such life-changing opportunities as I have described here? I think He means my example to serve as a message to all people, especially the skeptical ones, of the actuality of His promises, such as in Psalm 32:8 or Proverbs 16:9. Try adding one word to that question. Make it "Why not me, Lord?"

From New York Times bestselling author and economics columnist Robert Frank, a compelling book that explains why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in their success, why that hurts everyone, and what we can do about it How important is luck in economic success? No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine. In Success and Luck, bestselling author and New York Times economics columnist Robert Frank explores the surprising implications of those findings to show why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in success—and why that hurts everyone, even the wealthy. Frank describes how, in a world increasingly dominated by winner-take-all markets, chance opportunities and trivial initial advantages often translate into much larger ones—and enormous income differences—over time; how false beliefs about luck persist, despite compelling evidence against them; and how myths about personal success and luck shape individual and political choices in harmful ways. But, Frank argues, we could decrease the inequality driven by sheer luck by adopting simple, unintrusive policies that would free up trillions of dollars each year—more than enough to fix our crumbling infrastructure, expand healthcare coverage, fight global warming, and reduce poverty, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. If this sounds implausible, you'll be surprised to discover that the solution requires only a few, noncontroversial steps. Compellingly readable, Success and Luck shows how a more accurate understanding of the role of chance in life could lead to better, richer, and fairer economies and societies.

Representing Vulnerabilities in Contemporary Literature includes a collection of essays exploring the ways in which recent literary representations of vulnerability may problematize its visibilization from an ethical and aesthetic perspective. Recent technological and scientific developments have accentuated human vulnerability in many and different ways at a cross-national, and even cross-species level. Disability, technological, and ecological vulnerabilities are new foci of interest that add up to gender, precarity and trauma, among others, as forms of vulnerability in this volume. The literary visualization of these vulnerabilities might help raise social awareness of one’s own vulnerabilities as well as those of others so as to bring about global solidarity based on affinity and affect. However, the literary representation of forms of vulnerability might also deepen stigmatization phenomena and trivialize the spectacularization of vulnerability by blunting readers’ affective response towards those products that strive to hold their attention and interest in an information-saturated, global entertainment market.