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.

Hey all - I thought it would be fun to talk through some of my thoughts & feelings using the app. Check it out and let me know what you think - or better yet how you feel 😄

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?

The video Andrew posted tonight struck a chord in me. Played for the first time in a while today and think I made some rather large mistakes. Sharing 2 hands in 2 different $100 Hydra satellites on Global. Both early stages. Both AK. For context, these tournaments can only be entered by qualifying from another satty, so field seems a bit more loose in general. Feel like I played both of these way too aggressively but curious what you guys think. First one, a preflop spot I went to war with... https://play.globalpoker.com/gp/10/hand/c3183607-6549-3336-941c-eee6ef3387af Had villian pegged as a loose player tho sample size was very small. In retrospect, seems like a 5x open in these tournaments is usually too much strength to play back this strong...is that correct? We are around 40 BBs effective so my guess is...I probably shouldn't be going to war here, especially if the best case scenario is often a coinflip. My 3bet sizing seems a bit much, wasn't really much logic behind it honestly...acted kinda impulsively. Raising large seems like it's done to either push him off his hand or to more accurately size up his range. But probably not a great idea preflop especially after he raises so large, right? My guess is...because of stack depth, a flat here is likely the move because of his bet sizing, correct? Second one... https://play.globalpoker.com/gp/10/hand/ba25ab43-3e27-3eaa-9014-4108ed3060b4 Think my mistake was under-estimating the strength of my opponent. The check-raise on the ace high flop is a pretty big red flag I overlooked. Then I tried to protect myself against the flush...as I thought that could be in his range (this is also something I probably do way too often). His turn bet is once again way too strong for me to play back like this, yet my judgement was clouded in the moment. In both of these hands, it seems the pattern is that I'm underestimating my opponent's strength and overvaluing my own strength...and overcommitting myself in the process. Haven't played in a while so I'll go easy on myself...but definitely a big leak I would like to correct.

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