International Law

What Can We Learn From Paul Newman?

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Paul Newman died last night from cancer.  

Newman, along with Robert Redford and Robert Shaw, starred in one of the most popular movies about conmen, The Sting, which was based on David Maurer's book,The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man 

Paul Newman's foundation issued this press release, about luck, randomness and equality.

"Paul had an abiding belief in the role that luck plays in one's life, and its randomness.

He was quick to acknowledge the good fortune he had in his own life, beginning with being born in America, and was acutely aware of how unlucky so many others were.

True to his character, he quietly devoted himself to helping offset this imbalance."

The observation that luck, sometimes expressed as a power law relating, for example acting skill to box office returns, plays a large role in giving talented people their unjust deserts is also a point that Nicholas Taleb also makes, in his The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Here is my question.  If you knew that if you were materially successful, it would be due to luck, and you would be disposed to giving away large parts of your fortune to the deserving poor, would you try so hard to gain material success?

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Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on September 27, 2008 (boomark / email).