Top all-time · #1433
Codus Operandi
Personal blog · codusoperandi.com/posts · on HN as jayrostartupscareer
Codus Operandi is a personal blog at codusoperandi.com about startups and career. Since 2010, 48 different Hacker News readers have linked it 61 times, most often “Luck = D * T, where D is doing and T is telling others.”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Sometimes recommended · 10 of 36 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for the 'luck surface area' idea, a concept that doing things and telling people about them increases the chances of getting lucky.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 36 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Luck = D * T, where D is doing and T is telling others.22 people · 24 mentions · first linked 2010-11-09
- How to increase your luck surface area (2010)21 people · 24 mentions · first linked 2020-07-22
- Why I Quit Algorithmic Trading to Do Web Startups 4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-09-26
- Forget the TechCrunch Launch2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-10-26
- How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-10-29
What Hacker News says?
Here’s a good idea about Luck Surface Area https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Nine things I learned in ninety years”Submitted How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition as a story · 472 points
HN discussionAre you referring to the luck surface area? https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Do things, tell people (2012)”Submitted How to increase your luck surface area (2010) as a story · 353 points
HN discussionHopefully Jasons post can help to answer that: http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/bootstrapping-with-kids
Comment linking /posts/bootstrapping-with-kids
on “Entreporn, The Fallacy That Wastes Your Life”Submitted How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids as a story · 134 points
HN discussionI feel compelled to both upvote and comment on your post, in order to further emphasize the point you are making: you can help the number of times you put yourself in a position to be lucky . This understanding is incredibly important and relevant to every aspect of one's life, however diverse, from business to dating. Check out Luck Surface Area [0], a relevant concept largely based on the above. Also, most often t…
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Michael Lewis: Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie”Submitted Why I Quit Algorithmic Trading to Do Web Startups as a story · 101 points
HN discussionThis reminds me of a topic the guys from the TechZing podcast talk about pretty frequently, increasing your luck surface area. Jason Roberts has a short post about it on his blog that sums it up pretty well ( http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surf... ). This concept has resonated with me and for the past couple of months, I've started to do things with the hopes of increasing my luck surface ar…
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Michael Lewis: Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie”Submitted Luck = D * T, where D is doing and T is telling others. as a story · 54 points
HN discussionI think the first mention of the concept was on a podcast called TechZing. The author later wrote it down on his blog (referenced in the article) https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Publishing your work increases your luck”Submitted Forget the TechCrunch Launch as a story · 31 points
HN discussionI agree with Jessica's perspective. For me, though, there's an open question with how best to balance it with the "luck surface area" concept, especially when starting out. [1] [1] http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surf...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “The Sound of Silence”Submitted How I Ended Up Sleeping on Mike Arrington's Couch as a story · 26 points
HN discussionPrevious to Carl Lange’s post, this was described in "How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area" - http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surf... Apparently, Carl was unaware of it as well despite the post and subsequent discussion receiving a fair amount of attention on HN at different times. Disclaimer: I wrote it.
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Do things, write about it”Submitted How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area as a story · 15 points
HN discussionWhile luck isn't something you can completely control, it doesn't have to be entirely random either. I read this article a while back talking about a "luck surface area"[0], which you can expand, increasing your odds of being "lucky" in the future. [0]: http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surf...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball”Submitted How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area (2010) as a story · 8 points
HN discussionHi Cate, Welcome to HN! A few things: 1. Thank you for writing the book and providing the excerpt. 2. Here is a link to the original blog post by Jason: https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur... 3. I imagine that Jason would be happy to talk to you if you contact him and tell him what you’re doing. He goes by jayro here on HN, but I am not sure how active he is on HN these days. 3. I think ther…
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “How to increase your surface area for luck”Submitted Luck Surface Area as a story · 6 points
HN discussionToday I was rereading an old link on the same topic from my bookmarks https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “How to increase your surface area for luck”Submitted How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area (2010) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionMissing credit to the original creator of both the term “luck surface area” and the chart: https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur... The idea was also expanded upon by one of his friends in a mental models book here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525533583/
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round”Submitted Why I Quit Algorithmic Trading to Do Web Startups (2010) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionCan you share which podcast it was? Nvm. Reference : http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surf...
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Stop trying to ‘be original’ and be prolific instead (2016)”Submitted How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area as a story · 2 points
HN discussionLuck Surface Area ( https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur... ) definitely applies to this, though - it's all about positioning yourself so that you have the opportunity to get lucky.
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Some career advice (2019)”Submitted How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area as a story · 2 points
HN discussiondhh is the first example that comes to my mind. Interesting point, but I think it's still probably important for early stage startups to blog. It helps get them exposure and increase their luck surface area ( http://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surf... ). Things probably change when you get really big though.
Comment linking /posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area
on “Few successful entrepreneurs blog”Submitted Why I Quit Algorithmic Trading to Do Web Startups (2010) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
