Tip 15: Increase your luck surface area by finding your tribe

A simple equation for writing serendipity from coder Jason Roberts & encouragement to find your tribe from Parul Bavishi. It's time to get lucky!

Hello, it’s Monday again - that came around fast.

But luckily, we have a tip to get your writing week off to a flying start.

A few years ago, coder and entrepreneur Jason Roberts coined a neat concept called ‘Luck Surface Area’.¹

While our chance of success in most creative endeavours, including writing, isn’t under our control, our luck surface area is. It’s a really compelling idea that suggests that you can increase your chances of being lucky by taking action. Roberts wrote:

“The amount of serendipity that will occur in your life, your Luck Surface Area, is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you're passionate about combined with the total number of people to whom this is effectively communicated. It's a simple concept, but an extremely powerful one because what it implies is that you can directly control the amount of luck you receive.”

Jason Roberts

In short, you can increase your luck surface area by taking action. Roberts, being a freelance coder with a mathematical bent, summed it up as an equation:

L = D x T where L is luck, D is doing and T is telling.

For writers, you need to write, but to make the most of your writing, tell other people.

One way to do this is to join a writing group. Not sure whether you’re a joiner-in-er? Here’s a pep talk from one of the most inspiring community conveners we’re lucky to know.

Find your tribe - they are waiting for you

I recently spoke to founder of the London Writers’ Salon, Parul Bavishi (more from Parul in Wednesday’s newsletter when she shares her top community building tips).

She offered this encouragement:

If you're unsure whether you're a community person, that's fine. You can choose how engaged you want to be in any community. But I'd say, give it a chance - by showing up for a few events, you might just have a conversation with someone who really gets you. And from that you might, over time, develop a small collection of creative friends who believe in you. And that can make the difference when you’re in the trenches of your writing. 

Writing is important to your creative health, your mental health, isn’t it? So why wouldn’t you do everything you can to make it a better, easier journey?

Join a writing group, find your tribe. They're waiting for you.

Parul Bavishi, London Writers’ Salon

Words of wisdom! Have you found your tribe, the people who get you and help you to write? We’d love to hear how you increase your luck surface area - leave a comment below. And make us feel lucky by clicking the heart ❤️

Keep writing, Bec²

1. How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area by Jason Roberts in his blog, Codus Operandi.

2. When people talk about luck surface they often use the word ‘passion’ - as a buttoned-up Brit, I find the concept of passion rather alien. But, writing fires me up and leads to a level of motivation and commitment that other activities don’t. Is that passion? Probably. Will I start saying I am passionate about writing? Not likely!