Social and natural lottery of life

The underestimated role of luck

Science communication is one of the greatest things on the internet. While a lot of SciCom videos focus on hard science stuff such as black wholes, gravitational waves or gene editing, this video below is probably the most impactful video you’ll watch. This one, by Derek Muller over Veritasium, is about how our life outcomes are shaped by our own choices and efforts but also fundamentally by luck, what John Rawls call the social and natural lottery.

The video covers a mix of things from social psychology, collective behavior, social inequalities and moral philosophy, and how these things impact how you see yourself and others in the world. It should help you not to become a jerk to be kind to yourself and to others.

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