Cobra Kai is a great example of how Luck (and privilege as a subset of that) work. Think of CK as a person. Works it's ass off to be great but doesn't get much notice on Youtube. 1/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/cobra-kai-delivers-strong-viewing-numbers-for-netflix?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Then it goes to Netflix and suddenly it's a hit. Same show, same effort, same audience. CK didn't do anything different, but the conditions changed and made for greater success. It's no knock on CK to say luck is involved in that success. It's also wrong to say it's only luck. 2/

Same with Schitt's Creek and many other shows. Now imagine them all as people. Hard working, talented, have something to say; under one set of conditions that person may be hugely successful but only moderately so--or not at all--under others. 3/

It's rare in life that you get to run real world parallel experiments on this scale, but that's basically what the Netflix window is. A show that might be perceived as a failure can be proven under altered conditions to have been a hit. So what do "we know" about success then? 4/

And when you apply this notion to people the role luck plays in careers becomes very stark. Unfortunately we tend to speak of it as a binary. All luck or all effort. But Cobra Kai/Schitt's Creek, etc. make the point. They had to be great AND needed the conditions. 5/

Maybe this is beyond obvious to everyone but it doesn't seem so by the way it gets talked about on here. I'm fairly obsessed with the roll of Luck as this thread also shows. So I'm sure it won't be the last time I bring it up. /end https://twitter.com/matthewfederman/status/863835242825527296?s=20