Ask Lemmy

I'm seriously lucky, to the point it has been a running joke among my friend group!

It doesn't manifest itself as "everytime I gamble, I win", but more subtly. Finding dollar bills on the ground, having unexpected discounts, getting a dream job, ...

20-something English-speaking cis hetero white American male, stable supportive family I keep strong ties with, four-year university STEM degree, gainfully employed at a low-stress job full of people I like that affords a comfortable, reasonably above modest lifestyle, no outstanding debts, no severe health issues or crippling disibilities.

I've certainly won more than my fair share of cosmic lotteries, all things considered.

Only thing I guess I'm missing is a partner, which is entirely due to my own lack of effort. So far sailing solo hasn't bothered me any. But I do occasionally daydream about what I might be missing out on...

White, male privilege.

I never felt the need to compare myself to others. aka, I'm competing with no one but myself.

I consider that a huge advantage, but who knows maybe I'm wrong.

White, male privilege and loving parents that supported me in all ways when needed. Seriously, life has been almost on peaceful mode, definitely easy mode.

College educated parents. Education and early career is so much easier to navigate with parents who know the ropes and have a network.

I'm easily satisfied with life. I have a pretty good job and make pretty good money, good friends, and I have a beautiful wife, and that's all I need. I'm not the ambitious type who needs to keep making more and more money. I don't need the fanciest car or designer clothes. I don't want to be famous, and I don't have anything to prove to strangers. That makes it much easier to be happy, I think.

Things I didn't choose or earn? Taller than the average woman in my country. Both parents were smart as hell, university professors. Dad who thought women had every right and ability to do any job they wanted, we weren't raised differently based on sex.

I'm a white man living in the UK that's about as close to life on easy mode as you can get. I learned quite young to not care about what other people thought of me which has been very useful.

I'm engaged to my best friend, my future in laws are cool as hell, both my parents are alive and well, and my brothers and I get along really well. I've also got the cutest little nephew and hearing him laugh always makes my day. I might not make a ton of money, but I've got a damn good family and couldn't be more thankful for them

My dad was a union electrician. His medical benefits literally saved my life. You've probably heard how expensive it is to treat type 1 diabetes, well most everything I needed was covered by his benefits, and I did have to deal with a copay at the beginning of the year, but I didn't have anything denied.

I came from an upper middle class family have 2 great parents, and have wonderful extended family near by.

I'm practically invisible. Now that I've settled into it and don't really desire/crave attention, it's nice to just fade into the background.

White man, slightly balanced out by neurodivergence and coming from generational poverty. Outside of that I have a very patient and supportive wife that I'm eternally grateful for. She's the best

I still have one working hand, and I can walk.

I seem to be pretty good at English, which is definitely a leg up on billions of people.

I’m actively protected, respected, and cared for by my insular community.

I’m skilled with a microphone and can make whole audiences cackle.

These advantages are enough that I needed to be nerfed in some incredibly heinous ways, and yet I still have such an advantage that I’m usually first- or second-ban in the draft.

I used to have a fair bit of imposter syndrome but now that I've been working with a proper team I've come too accept I have an aptitude for code and logic in general, alongside a fairly good abstract memory.

I'm not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm a little more competent than the average software engineer, enough that it gets noticed.

I also got lucky and scored a job at 17 in the field (with no nepotism involved), not a great one but enough to look good on my resume, and have been working in the industry for just over a decade with no college.

I was born in People's Republic of China, so I understand Cantonese, Mandarin, can read many simplified characters, and some traditional characters. Not much tho, I think I only know like up to Grade 1-2 proficiency. But if I go relearn it and perfect it, I could potentially be a translator/interpretor or a diplomat. But nah, I'm too lazy, I'l just stick with English cuz I'm too lazy to learn more Chinese, and also I'm not planning on ever stepping foot in CCP territory again.

But if y'all need some translation, and google translate doesn't work, you can always @ me. 😉

My design is very human.

I've had lots of problems in life (late diagnosed neurodiversity), walked out of jobs, changed careers, gone back to uni three times, and had a series of mental breakdowns. But despite all that, because I had a caring family, I knew that the worst that could happen is I'd have to move back in with my parents, which might be. A bit humiliating but would be easy, comfortable and safe.

This security allowed me to spend two decades fucking up until I got the right diagnosis, medication and a satisfying professional career. I'm extremely conscious that if I'd not had love and support I'd have ended up an unemployed alcoholic, or dead. I have so much respect for people fighting through life on hard mode, but I'm also so glad I happened to get the lucky draw.

Similarly, being a normal looking white guy is an amazing superpower. Although "invisible disabilities" absolutely have their own challenges, the fact that my problems aren't easily spotted means that despite being repeatedly terrible at a wide variety of jobs, and a general screw up, I have gotten every job I've interviewed for, often massively beyond my actual skills and expertise. And it's not just the external appearance, the confidence I grew up with from being white, male, straight passing, and middle class, has meant that people just believe stuff when I say it, and take me seriously even if I don't really know much about whatever we're discussing.

Obviously there's some small amount of individual traits and whole lot of luck (you can still lose a game in easy mode, and sadly I know folks who have) but it so obvious I'm playing with a stacked deck compared with most of the world, that it boggles my mind that people try and deny their 'privilege'.

I'm white and can pass as a straight man if I try hard enough.

I have relatively high intelligence, have a job that allows me to work at my own pace and combine it with study and other activities, I have good friends and a supportive, caring, active and housewifely partner, my mother is alive and well.

Generally, a good set for a fulfilling life :)

Though I'm disadvantaged in a lot of ways, I have a really good job with a solid team and a fantastic wage structure. It's also union and wfh. Super lucky and grateful.

When I was in grade school we had a self-directed math program called Individually Prescribed Instruction or IPI. In the program you would take a pre-test and based on the results do a set of exercises. Then you took a post-test to close out that section. What I realized is that since the exercises are self directed we had unsupervised access to the exercises and the solutions. When given the pre-tests I would look up examples in the exercises with the solutions to figure out how to do the questions. I then proceeded to speed run the whole IPI curriculum. This gave me a leg up in math. I proceeded to get a 100% on my Algebra regents and just generally crush it in math. Ended up getting a uni degree in math and physics. This opened many doors for me later in life.

It's a good attitude to have, to focus on what you have.

I read a book about a holocaust survivor and how little life was worth in the camps. Now I feel genuinely grateful for a warm bed and no wars around here.