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Post by zAkAtAk on Mar 5, 2010 10:12:01 GMT -5
I've seen this question asked on a few other forums and I'm curious to see what everyone says. So the question is: Would you rather go through your life lucky (assume that luck does exist), or would you rather have intelligence? You can have marginal intelligence with exceptional luck or You can have marginal luck with exceptional intelligence I'll add my bit after I see a few other responses, but I'm sure I already have my answer.
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Cortney
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Post by Cortney on Mar 5, 2010 10:22:27 GMT -5
I'd rather be lucky to be honest. Think about that phrase "ignorance is bliss." Being intelligent can get you far in life, yes, but if you're lucky that doesn't matter. Then again, I've been rather unlucky in life, so maybe I'm biased. xD
Intelligence can be a wonderful asset or a horrible burden, depending on your situation in life and general personality. Maybe the intelligence isn't the bad part, but rather how much you use it and think. You can be book smart and never envy the vegetable, so to speak. It just depends on the type of person.
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Post by Ricky on Mar 5, 2010 11:18:15 GMT -5
I agree 100% with Cortney. Intelligence is a great thing, but for pure survival you need luck more than anything XD
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bleabot
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Post by bleabot on Mar 5, 2010 11:45:50 GMT -5
I'd much rather have intelligence. I couldn't go through life just being lucky and not knowing why and how things happen the way they do. I like learning things. I don't like leaving it to "luck". Basically, I'm just too curious for my own good. With the proper intelligence, I could satisfy that curiosity.
It'd be awesome to be intelligent and lucky, but we can't have both xD
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on Mar 5, 2010 15:01:51 GMT -5
I'm with bleabot. But I also wonder how seperable the two really are. You constantly hear in sports about how luck is just a factor of skill -- the skilled players set themselves up in positions to get lucky more often.
I think that can apply to intelligence outside of sports as well. If you're smart, you'll change your situation to one where bad things are less likely to happen and good things are more likely, which in a sense of the word, is increasing your "luck" by increasing the odds in favour of you getting lucky.
Luck is a factor of skill... luck is a factor of intelligence. Maybe?
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Post by uselessTies on Mar 5, 2010 15:54:19 GMT -5
I voted for intelligence because I agree with the Stanley Kowalski opinion of luck.
"You know what luck is? Luck is believing you're lucky, that's all... To hold a front position in this rat-race, you've got to believe you are lucky."
Although I agree with Cortney that having intelligence can be a horrible burden depending on the situation.
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Post by americanarchon on Mar 5, 2010 17:01:17 GMT -5
As the song from Pippin goes--"It's smarter to be lucky, than it's lucky to be smart."
Intelligent people can see the bad stuff coming and realistically assess it. Lucky people can just coast through and achieve based on chance.
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Post by Lex on Mar 5, 2010 17:07:32 GMT -5
"I make my own luck." - Harvey Dent.
Do YOU believe in Harvey Dent?
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bleabot
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Post by bleabot on Mar 5, 2010 18:21:54 GMT -5
As the song from Pippin goes--"It's smarter to be lucky, than it's lucky to be smart." Intelligent people can see the bad stuff coming and realistically assess it. Lucky people can just coast through and achieve based on chance. It would be so much more fun to be able to plot your way out of "bad stuff" instead of being lucky though!
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Post by americanarchon on Mar 5, 2010 18:51:22 GMT -5
Assuming that there is a way out
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on Mar 5, 2010 19:46:38 GMT -5
As the song from Pippin goes--"It's smarter to be lucky, than it's lucky to be smart." Intelligent people can see the bad stuff coming and realistically assess it. Lucky people can just coast through and achieve based on chance. It would be so much more fun to be able to plot your way out of "bad stuff" instead of being lucky though! This immediatley made me think of Batman, lol. And I'm not even a fan of American comics.
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Post by evi on Mar 6, 2010 7:59:21 GMT -5
Depends on what it means to have "marginal intelligence"...
If it means being unable to think for myself and ending up for example trying to be cool using questionable methods because other people say that's what one should do (=being stupid), then I'd rather settle for bad luck.
But if having "marginal intelligence" means being a Forrest Gump-like idiot, I would happily choose that one! I may be an idiot, but I'm not stupid. I'm planning on living an ordinary life anyway and my own - more or less "exceptional" - level of intelligence already causes me more unnecessary headaches than I'd care to have.
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Post by sophie9116 on Mar 8, 2010 12:25:32 GMT -5
I would definitely prefer to be intelligent because I hate not knowing things and besides, if you aren't particularly smart, but go through life without any problems because you're lucky then you're not really achieving anything. You feel better about yourself when you work for what you have, not when everything is just handed to you and you're not sure why.
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Post by glorfon on Mar 8, 2010 17:52:52 GMT -5
What is luck if not the ability to take advantage of the unexpected? (Attributed to Napoleon though I don't have a source)
I think if you're intelligent you can solve problems as well or better than some one who is lucky. Plus you gain the confidence of knowing that you achieved something, for example I'd rather be an entrepreneur than inherit a fortune.
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cheesepie13
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Post by cheesepie13 on Mar 16, 2010 16:25:48 GMT -5
Well if I was really lucky I would hope I'd be lucky enough to be born intelligent, then I'd have both!
But if I had to choose one it would probably be luck, because everything is effected by it.
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Post by UnfairBear on Mar 16, 2010 16:54:28 GMT -5
I think intelligence is worth much more and can get you further. For example if you have to solve a math problem in an exam, you could guess the final answer, and you might be lucky enough to get it right, but you still wouldn't get all the points for it because you weren't intelligent enough to show the workings for it. It's true, luck can also be a large factor in certain things, even if you've used intelligence to set yourself up for luck, as Nakor said, but I think in the end intelligence is probably worth more.
Also, to what Cortney said, I think luck can be a worse burden to bear than intelligence. It's much easier to hide intelligence than it is to hide luck.
To cheesepie, sure, everything is affected by luck, but everything if affected by intelligence aswell. Luck is fleeting though, you can't count on it making that effect. You know if you're intelligent though, you can rely on it, so you can predict an effect much better.
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cheesepie13
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Post by cheesepie13 on Mar 16, 2010 23:06:17 GMT -5
Well I think you really need both to be happy in life.
Say i'm really smart, have all these ideas but i'm unlucky because no one listen to these ideas, I wouldn't be happy and probably my life wouldn't be successful.
And say if i'm really lucky and just "coast through life" beating people for jobs and stuff like that I would be successful in life but I would feel guilty because I wouldn't deserve it.
Really only way i would be happy is if i had a reasonable amount of both luck and intelligence.
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Post by Jake on Mar 18, 2010 16:55:43 GMT -5
Well I think you really need both to be happy in life. Say i'm really smart, have all these ideas but i'm unlucky because no one listen to these ideas, I wouldn't be happy and probably my life wouldn't be successful. And say if i'm really lucky and just "coast through life" beating people for jobs and stuff like that I would be successful in life but I would feel guilty because I wouldn't deserve it. Really only way i would be happy is if i had a reasonable amount of both luck and intelligence. I'm just going to say I agree with this! But if I had to pick one it would be "lucky". Because I know plenty of unintelligent people who are really quite happy! And then the unlucky people often let it bring them down a lot...
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Post by llluminati on Mar 22, 2010 20:29:27 GMT -5
The obvious answer seems to be intelligence, however, thinking about it, it really comes down to your values. That being said, I would still have to go for intelligence. Granted, being lucky will invariably result in a higher standard of living, I wouldn't be able to have a good quality of life in full knowledge that I only rely on luck rather than intelligence.
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Post by Natalie on Mar 23, 2010 10:28:57 GMT -5
I'd rather be intelligent. I mean, if you're lucky, you know you're lucky, and you know that you really haven't earned anything.. you're just lucky... do I make sense?
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