I’ve recently found myself revisiting an idea that has fascinated me for years: What if being “lucky” is actually a skill that can be learned? I’ve explored this from a few different angles. Spiritually, I’ve wondered about karma. Do the intentions, energy and actions we put into the world somehow influence the circumstances that eventually find their way back to us? Interestingly, the traditional concept of karma is deeper than the modern idea of “do something good and something lucky will happen.” In Buddhist philosophy, intention matters enormously. Karma literally relates to action, and our intentional actions are believed to produce consequences. Classical Indian philosophy similarly treats karma as a causal relationship between actions and their eventual “fruit.” Whether you accept that literally, metaphorically, or not at all, the concept raises an interesting question: Can the way we live actually change the amount of “luck” we encounter? Then there’s a completely different explanation. Maybe we manufacture luck simply by creating more opportunities for unlikely things to happen. Meet more people. Try more things. Ask more questions. Take intelligent risks. Enter more tournaments. Start more projects. Have conversations with strangers. Go places you normally wouldn’t go. Say YES a little more often. If an opportunity has only a small probability of occurring, sitting on the couch gives it almost no opportunity to find you. Put yourself into enough situations where something could happen, however, and suddenly you’ve increased your exposure to positive randomness. That isn't magic. It's probability. And there’s actually research surprisingly close to this idea. Christian Busch's research on serendipity describes it as something more than blind luck. His systematic review in the Journal of Management Studies identified three components: agency, surprise and value. In other words, something unexpected happens, but a person still has to recognize it and do something with it.

I recently wrote an e-mail about this concept of the 52nd hexagram in the i-Ching is it relates to my last name, Lichtenberger, and the nature of the mountain. This is a fun creative picture I drew in association with this topic. If anyone else is much into drawing here - feel free to share!

Sharing with ya'll first. I went through every line of the Art of War and related the concepts to Poker. This is a short teaser from Chapter 1 https://youtu.be/NMeJ0et0JGE?si=jJlrmcLUmQd4h8qr

Just finished reading thru the courses in the Classroom. Fascinating stuff @Andrew Lichtenberger Often when exploring esoteric topics (like the Tao), it can be hard to wrap my mind around it all. Curious if you could suggest any particular ways to apply these concepts beyond using the I-Ching? Any daily habits you've found valuable to integrate these teachings?

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts, experiences and feedback about Flow State. I will start the discussion off with this: I came across this recent study supporting how Flow State may be a whole brain phenomenon. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811926003642?utm_source=chatgpt.com Basically, a fascinating new 2026 NeuroImage study compared brain activity during flow, boredom and anxiety using EEG. The finding that grabbed me: During flow, the brain showed the highest overall connectivity, flexibility and complexity of dynamic activity. Researchers describe flow as a highly adaptable, metastable state, where different parts of the brain remain specialized while dynamically coordinating with one another. In simple terms, being “in the zone” may not just be a feeling. It may represent a measurable state where the brain becomes extraordinarily good at working together without becoming rigid. That raises a question I love: Do we enter flow by trying harder... or by finally getting ourselves out of the way? What do you think?