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A review by bootman
Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H. Frank
5.0
2nd read:
This is easily a must-read book. I was totally unfamiliar with Sally Kohn’s work, but she has a great head on her shoulders. In short, Sally wanted to understand why we hate other groups of people, and it mainly started with online trolls and political polarization. Although I knew a lot of what she talks about in this book, it was great reading about her going on this journey, and I did learn about a few studies I hadn’t heard of before.
This book stretches far beyond polarization and touches on genocides and other atrocities. Sally interviews online trolls and gets interesting answers as to why they attack her. She also dives into racial biases, and although I’ve read about this topic extensively, I have never seen a white person become so introspective about the topic. It wasn’t the “I’m a terrible white person”, stuff either. She catches her thoughts and lays them out there, and if more people did that, this world would be a much better place.
1st read:
There are a handful of books that I’ve read where I think, “Literally everyone needs to read this book to better understand life and the world,” and this book from Robert Frank is one of them. I read this book for the first time about a year ago and decided to read it again because Robert is coming on my podcast, and I binged it in about a day. This was one of the first books that I read that really broke down the myth of meritocracy and how luck plays a role in success, and the second time reading it, I gained even more from the experience. This time, I was able to better understand some of Robert’s suggestions and quotes from others about how we balance success and luck while also making this world a little bit better for everyone.
By reading this book, you have an understanding of why hard work and developing skills are both important, but you only have so much control over your outcomes. This allows us to be humble and grateful for our successes while also pushing forward. Many of the lessons from this book are ones I teach my son so he practices gratitude and humility while also having a strong work ethic. But why do so many people neglect to credit luck in their success? Frank points to some evolutionary theories that may explain why these are adaptive behaviors, but although adaptive, it doesn’t mean we can’t work on it.
This is easily a must-read book. I was totally unfamiliar with Sally Kohn’s work, but she has a great head on her shoulders. In short, Sally wanted to understand why we hate other groups of people, and it mainly started with online trolls and political polarization. Although I knew a lot of what she talks about in this book, it was great reading about her going on this journey, and I did learn about a few studies I hadn’t heard of before.
This book stretches far beyond polarization and touches on genocides and other atrocities. Sally interviews online trolls and gets interesting answers as to why they attack her. She also dives into racial biases, and although I’ve read about this topic extensively, I have never seen a white person become so introspective about the topic. It wasn’t the “I’m a terrible white person”, stuff either. She catches her thoughts and lays them out there, and if more people did that, this world would be a much better place.
1st read:
There are a handful of books that I’ve read where I think, “Literally everyone needs to read this book to better understand life and the world,” and this book from Robert Frank is one of them. I read this book for the first time about a year ago and decided to read it again because Robert is coming on my podcast, and I binged it in about a day. This was one of the first books that I read that really broke down the myth of meritocracy and how luck plays a role in success, and the second time reading it, I gained even more from the experience. This time, I was able to better understand some of Robert’s suggestions and quotes from others about how we balance success and luck while also making this world a little bit better for everyone.
By reading this book, you have an understanding of why hard work and developing skills are both important, but you only have so much control over your outcomes. This allows us to be humble and grateful for our successes while also pushing forward. Many of the lessons from this book are ones I teach my son so he practices gratitude and humility while also having a strong work ethic. But why do so many people neglect to credit luck in their success? Frank points to some evolutionary theories that may explain why these are adaptive behaviors, but although adaptive, it doesn’t mean we can’t work on it.