This way you use the opportunity to your advantage

Anyone who wants to exploit opportunity to their own advantage must not only be open to it, but must also accept that chaos is inherent in life and cannot be controlled. BNR Science Editor Karlin Meenders visited the Philosophy Night in Utrecht and spoke to philosopher Jeroen Hubster from Utrecht University. “Chance favors the prepared mind,” Hobster quotes Louis Pasteur.

In short: we could be better prepared for chance; And those who are open to it are more likely to encounter it. According to Hoopster, coincidence is important for many processes, says Menders, but at the same time it is “an element that makes reality more interesting.” “But a person has to be open about it,” Hopster says.

to prepare

Louis Pasteur said: Chance favors the prepared mind. “If you’ve already done a lot of work, you’ll be in a better position to use that coincidence for your own purposes,” says Hopster. In this, he refers to the phenomenon of coincidence and unintended discovery. In science, an unwanted discovery is considered a lucky bycatch, but it doesn’t just come to you. “He came to you because you are very strict and did a lot of preparatory work.”

Science today | Listen to all episodes

an exercise

So it’s a matter of practice, although Hopster believes some people are more psychologically open to it than others. And Minders sees an overlap with luck: “Research on luck, compared to unlucky people, shows that lucky people are often open to it, and they are open to it.” Precisely because lucky people leave room for surprise and notice things, they are surprised more often, and thus increase their likelihood of happiness.

Clever coincidence

Clever coincidence, that’s what Hopster calls a coincidence that we can use to our advantage. “Coincidence which we can use intelligently as a kind of ingredient in creative processes. What we can also do is try to intentionally increase serendipity in certain processes. Using serendipity to our advantage means that we must be open to serendipity, see it as a tool and be able to manipulate With the chaos of existence, according to Hopster, our world is too complex to be completely oriented, but accepting this fact enhances the ability to give chaos a step in the right direction. “We put our own spin on the power of chance.”