---
title: ▍How to Engineer Luck
created: 2025-10-28T19:37:09
modified: 2025-12-03T06:03:12
draft: false
category: Essay
author: George Mack
url: https://essays.highagency.com/p/how-could-you-double-your-luck-in
---
Thought Experiment:
> _If you had to double your luck in the next six months, what would you do?_
---
> I find it useful to distinguish between _luck-luck_ and _skill-luck_. _Luck-luck_ is pure randomness, like being born in the right country. _Skill-luck_ is when you help engineer luck, like moving cities to the place that has the best opportunity potential for you.
---
12 rules of thumb in skilled Luck Engineers:
1. **Make unscheduled phone calls**
> _“Can I help you with anything right now?”_
2. **Avoid boring people**
1. Avoid people who bore you.
2. ⭐️ Avoid being the boring person in the room.
* Interesting people get more luck, not because they’re necessarily smarter, but because they’re memorable.
3. **Poker mindset > Roulette mindset**
> Playing a game of roulette, thinking it’s poker is better than playing a game of poker, thinking it’s roulette.
> Assume every game has an element of skill — you’ve just not discovered it yet.
4. **The Luck Razor**
Source: How to Create Your Own Luck by Sahil Bloom
* When choosing two paths, choose the path that has a larger [luck surface area](https://www.google.com/search?q=luck+surface+area).
* Example: going for drinks with a stranger > watching Netflix at home.
5. **Proactively make introductions**
When two friends could genuinely benefit from knowing each other, make the introduction. It takes you 30 seconds, but it could change their lives — they might start a company, hire each other, or even fall in love. Networks don’t shrink when you share them; they multiply. There’s no higher ROI on any other 30-second act. (Tip: only introduce people when both sides stand to gain — not just one.)
6. **Avoid fan relationships**
> Chasing “successful” people you admire rarely works. You’re fan #967 trying to get their attention. They don’t need more groupies in their lives. They prefer spending time with people who knew them before their success. A better strategy that is also more fulfilling: Find talented peers at your level. Their DMs aren’t crowded. Help them. Collaborate. Celebrate their wins. When they break through in five or ten years, you’ll be one of the people who knew them “back in the day”—and those relationships are worth exponentially more than being fan #967.
7. **Get more curious with age**
> If you’re over the age of 25, a good rule of thumb is to assume your first thoughts about new trends are wrong. It’s fine to have no opinion on new trends. But if you want to have an opinion, put 20 hours into it first. Talk to people doing it. Try it yourself. Get your hands dirty.
8. **Delete the scoreboard**
> Most people have a relationship scoreboard. My score versus your score. When I do something for you, I get points. When you do something for me, you get points.
>
> This creates two problems. First, most scoreboards stay stuck at 0:0 because both people are waiting for the other to give first. Second, the scoreboard assumes relationships are zero-sum—a fixed pie where if you get a bigger slice, I get less. If the score is 6:5 in their favor, I feel like I’m losing -1, when I’m actually +5.
>
> Luck engineers delete the scoreboard. Give aggressively, give early, give without permission. The pie isn’t fixed—it expands when you give freely.
9. **Reverse prison advice**
> Find the most talented people you know and help them as much as you can, permissionlessly. Share their projects, give feedback, and make introductions. Successful people have a special place in their hearts for the people who helped them before anyone else did.
10. **Work on your introduction**
> When you have a clear introduction that describes what you do: “I create Super Bowl-level commercials for fintech companies on social media”, they can now realise ways they can help you: “Oh, my friend Barry is the marketing director at Amex. Let me introduce you!”. Being a great luck engineer is turning yourself into a simple API that people can connect into.
11. **Track luck inputs**
> Track introductions made, people helped, or bets placed. If you maintain a high luck input rate, the luck outputs take care of themselves. You can’t control the timing of luck, but you can control the volume of luck inputs you create.
12. **Get good at advertising**
13. **Dish out baker’s dozens**
> A [baker’s dozen](https://www.google.com/search?q=baker%E2%80%99s+dozen) is when a baker gives someone 13 when they expected 12. It isn’t the 12 that makes bakers’ customers happy — it’s the unexpected +1. Surprise generosity creates loyalty. People remember who exceeded their expectations. They tell others. They come back. They reciprocate. Apply this everywhere: Buy someone a book when they ask for a book recommendation. Ship Thursday when you said Friday. Show up twenty minutes early to help a friend set up an event.
