Luck and the Photoelectric effect.

All of us have gone through phases in our lives when nothing seems to work. You don't achieve the desired results despite the best of efforts, ability and intent. On the other hand, most of us have also experienced those glorious purple patches when everything we touch, turns to gold, with no additional effort on our part. Things just happen to fall in place "magically".

When asked to explain what is the difference between the 2 scenarios described above, you almost always are told that it’s all about luck/fate/destiny. When lady luck is smiling upon you, the force is literally with you. When she is not, you toil hard, often without the results you believe you deserve.

So what is this mystery called luck? Are we born with our destinies in place? Or do we make our own destinies?

Believing that everything is predetermined would make the whole concept of free will and human ingenuity redundant. On the other hand, believing that we are the complete masters of our lives and understand all the zillion variables that influence every single tiny decision we make, seems far-fetched.

I found myself vacillating between these 2 extreme positions on the role of luck in one's life until I found clarity from a totally unexpected source - Einstein. More specifically his Nobel winning effort on the photoelectric effect.

In a nutshell, the photoelectric effect confirmed the wave-particle duality of light. It proposed that you can perfectly think of light as a wave or as a particle depending on what property of light you are trying to explain. When it comes to Diffraction or Interference, think of light as a wave. When it comes to the quantum effects of light such as the photoelectric effect, think of light as a particle.

What does all this have to do with luck, you may be wondering. Very simple. I now think of luck as a duality.

We cannot always choose the cards we are dealt. But we can certainly choose the way we play our hand.