Chapter 16 Exercises: The Luck Journal — Noticing and Amplifying Good Fortune

How These Exercises Are Organized

Exercises are arranged across five difficulty levels: - Level 1 — Recall and Recognition: Can you name and identify the concepts? - Level 2 — Comprehension: Do you understand how and why they work? - Level 3 — Application: Can you use these ideas in real situations? - Level 4 — Analysis and Synthesis: Can you examine and build arguments? - Level 5 — Personal Mastery: Can you run experiments and generate insight from your own life?

Note: The centerpiece of this chapter's mastery exercises is a structured 2-week luck journal practice. Exercise 5.1 lays out the full protocol. It is recommended that you begin Exercise 5.1 as soon as possible, as the 2-week duration makes it time-sensitive relative to other exercises.

Level 1 — Recall and Recognition

Exercise 1.1 — Match the Concept

Match each concept to its correct definition.

Concepts: (A) Negativity bias, (B) Attentional set, (C) Broaden-and-build theory, (D) Priming, (E) Serendipity consolidation

Definitions: 1. The framework proposed by Fredrickson and Branigan showing that positive emotions broaden attentional scope, which builds psychological resources over time. 2. Recent exposure to a concept or category makes related things more salient and noticeable in subsequent experience. 3. The filter or configuration that determines what an observer notices in a given environment, shaped by current goals, expectations, and emotional state. 4. Converting the raw material of noticed potential lucky breaks into actual lucky breaks through deliberate follow-up action. 5. The systematic tendency for negative events, information, and experiences to register more strongly and be remembered more durably than positive ones of equivalent magnitude.

Exercise 1.2 — Wiseman's Newspaper Experiment

Answer the following questions about the newspaper experiment described in the chapter:

1. What task were participants given?
2. What message appeared on the second page of the newspaper?
3. Which group found the message, and which group missed it?
4. What was Wiseman's interpretation of this result?
5. How does this finding relate to attentional set?

Exercise 1.3 — True or False

Mark each statement T (True) or F (False). If false, write the corrected version.

1. The negativity bias means people are more likely to notice negative events than positive ones of equivalent magnitude.
2. Emmons and McCullough's gratitude research found that the gratitude condition produced better outcomes than the hassles condition, but not better than the neutral condition.
3. The luck journal's primary value comes from reading back through old entries to identify patterns.
4. Priming effects on opportunity recognition are typically conscious — people know when priming has influenced their attention.
5. The broaden-and-build theory suggests that positive affect literally broadens the scope of visual attention in the moment.

Exercise 1.4 — Five Categories

List the five categories of the luck journal as described in the chapter. For each, write a one-sentence description and one example entry.

Level 2 — Comprehension

Exercise 2.1 — Explain the Mechanism

A classmate says: "The luck journal is just forcing yourself to think positive thoughts. That's not science."

Write a 250-word response explaining: - What the negativity bias is and why it creates a systematic perception problem - How the luck journal differs from "thinking positive thoughts" - What the actual cognitive mechanism of the luck journal is (the search-and-notice process) - One piece of research evidence that supports the approach

Exercise 2.2 — The Attention Architecture

The chapter says that two people can walk through the same environment and perceive fundamentally different worlds based on their attentional filter.

For each of the following filter factors, explain: (a) how the factor shapes what gets noticed, and (b) how a person could deliberately adjust the factor to notice more luck-relevant information.

1. Current goals
2. Emotional state
3. Expectations
4. Priming

Exercise 2.3 — Emmons and McCullough's Three Conditions

Re-read the section describing Emmons and McCullough's randomized controlled trial.

a) Why was it important that the study included three conditions (gratitude, hassles, neutral) rather than just two (gratitude, hassles)?

b) The fact that the gratitude condition outperformed the neutral condition (not just the hassles condition) is described as meaningful evidence about the mechanism. Explain why this is the case.

c) What does "the search itself is the intervention" mean? Use the Emmons and McCullough findings to explain.

Exercise 2.4 — Broaden and Build

Fredrickson and Branigan's research showed that positive affect broadens attentional scope.

a) Explain the broaden-and-build theory in your own words — what does it claim and why?

b) The chapter says the luck journal influences this circuit "in both directions." Explain what this means.

c) What does this circuit imply about the relationship between mood and luck? Is it circular? Is circularity a problem here?

Level 3 — Application

Exercise 3.1 — Diagnose the Attentional Set

For each person described below, identify: (a) what their current attentional set is directed toward, (b) what they are likely to miss as a result, and (c) a specific luck journal prompt that might help them notice what they're missing.

1. Aiden is applying for internships and has been rejected by four of his top choices. He now approaches every application with the expectation of rejection. He spends more time reading negative stories about his industry (company layoffs, oversaturation) than positive ones.

2. Mei is a first-year college student who is very focused on her GPA. She attends classes, studies, and returns to her room. She rarely attends campus events or goes to common spaces because "there's always work to do."

3. Jordan is a content creator who monitors her engagement metrics hourly. She experiences every dip as evidence of failure and every spike as unexplained randomness. She has stopped engaging with comments because "it doesn't affect the algorithm anyway."

Exercise 3.2 — Build a Social Luck Map

Think back over the past three months. Reconstruct, as completely as you can, every time someone helped you — however small. Include: - People who shared your work or recommended you to someone else - People who gave you information you found useful - People who offered encouragement at a moment when you needed it - People who made connections, introductions, or referrals on your behalf - People who passed along opportunities you wouldn't have found otherwise

Organize these into a simple table: Person | What They Did | Potential Significance | Did You Follow Up?

Reflection questions: - How many people did you identify? - Who surprised you most? - What percentage did you follow up with in any meaningful way? - What does this map reveal about your support network?

Exercise 3.3 — Write Today's Luck Journal Entry

Using the five-category format from the chapter, write today's luck journal entry right now (or yesterday's, if it's early in the day). Minimum: three entries across at least two categories.

For each entry, add: - The observation itself (2–4 sentences) - Category label - A one-sentence follow-up action, if applicable

Then answer: Which category was hardest to fill? Which came most naturally? What does this reveal about where your attentional aperture is narrowest?

Exercise 3.4 — Priming Design

You want to prime your cognitive system each morning to be more attuned to unexpected encounters, information windfalls, and social recognition moments throughout the day.

Design a 5-minute morning priming ritual that uses the research on priming to increase your luck-noticing probability. The ritual should be: - Specific (not "think positive thoughts" but concrete actions) - Based on the mechanism described in the Research Spotlight - Practical enough to actually do before 8am

Write out the ritual step by step.

Exercise 3.5 — The Follow-Up Gap

Think of three potentially lucky breaks you noticed in the last month — encounters, pieces of information, social recognition moments — that you did not follow up on.

For each: 1. What was the event? 2. What follow-up action would have been natural and low-stakes? 3. What stopped you from taking it? 4. Is it too late to follow up now? (Often it isn't.)

For at least one of the three, take the follow-up action now and record the outcome.

Level 4 — Analysis and Synthesis

Exercise 4.1 — Critique the Gratitude Research

The chapter presents Emmons and McCullough's randomized controlled trial as strong evidence for the value of positive journaling. Write a 300-word critical analysis that addresses: - What the study does and doesn't prove - What the limitations of self-report outcome measures are - Whether the effects (mood, health complaints, exercise) translate directly to luck-relevant outcomes (opportunity recognition, social engagement, network expansion) - What additional research would strengthen the case

Be fair — the goal is to understand the evidence accurately, not to dismiss it or uncritically accept it.

Exercise 4.2 — The Nadia Case Analysis

Re-read the section on Nadia's 30-day luck journal case study.

a) Nadia observed that she had "more lucky moments" in the second half of the month than the first. Generate at least three alternative hypotheses (besides the attention-training explanation) that could explain this pattern.

b) For each hypothesis, what data or observation would distinguish it from the attention-training explanation?

c) The chapter says Dr. Yuki told Nadia "there isn't a difference" between having more lucky moments and being better at seeing them. Do you agree? Is this philosophically defensible? Write a 200-word argument for or against this claim.

Exercise 4.3 — Negativity Bias: Adaptive or Maladaptive?

The chapter presents negativity bias primarily as a problem to be corrected. Write a 300-word essay that steelmans the case for negativity bias — arguing that it serves important functions even in modern contexts and that aggressively correcting for it could have downsides.

Then write a 150-word response identifying where you agree with this steelman and where you think the correction is still worth making.

Exercise 4.4 — The Luck Journal as Institution

Imagine you are advising a high school or college. You want to introduce luck journaling as a systematic practice — not as an individual assignment but as an institutional program.

Design a 12-week program that would introduce the luck journal to a class of 30 students. Address: - How would you introduce the concept to skeptical teenagers? - What would the daily/weekly journaling structure look like? - How would you create accountability without violating privacy? - How would you measure whether the program worked? - What are the risks of implementing this program badly?

Write this as a 400-word program proposal.

Exercise 4.5 — Attention and Inequality

The chapter focuses on how individual attentional patterns affect individual luck outcomes. But attentional resources are not equally distributed.

Write a 350-word analysis addressing: - How stress, food insecurity, chronic anxiety, and other features of material hardship affect attentional bandwidth (draw on the concept of "cognitive bandwidth tax" if you're familiar with it — research by Mullainathan and Shafir is a good starting point) - What this implies about luck journaling as a universal prescription - Whether the tool has different value for people in different life circumstances - What systemic changes would do more than individual journaling for people in conditions of material scarcity

Level 5 — Personal Mastery

Exercise 5.1 — The Structured 2-Week Luck Journal

This is the centerpiece exercise of the chapter. Run the full luck journal protocol for 14 consecutive days.

Setup: - Choose your medium: a dedicated notebook, a notes app, a digital journal. The medium matters less than the consistency. - Choose your time: either morning (reviewing yesterday) or evening (reviewing today). Commit to the same time each day. - Set a recurring reminder.

Daily Protocol: Each day, write a minimum of three entries across at least two of the five categories (Unexpected Encounters, Information Windfalls, Social Recognition Moments, Convergence Moments, Good Decisions / Good Outcomes).

For each entry: - Describe what happened in 2–4 sentences - Label the category - Write a follow-up action if applicable (one sentence)

Also add one Social Luck entry each day: "Who helped me today, even a little?"

Weekly Review (Days 7 and 14): At the end of each week, review all entries and write a 200-word weekly reflection addressing: - Which categories are most populated? - Which categories are sparsely populated? - What patterns do you see about when lucky events occur? - What follow-up actions did you take? What happened? - Do you feel like your attentional set has shifted? How?

Day 14 Assessment: Write a 400-word final assessment comparing Week 1 and Week 2: - Did the frequency of entries per day change across the two weeks? - Did the quality or specificity of entries change? - Did you notice any real-world changes in your behavior (following up more, engaging differently with people)? - What, if anything, do you now see in your daily life that you weren't seeing before?

Exercise 5.2 — The Attentional Environment Audit

For one week, track not just what you notice but where and when you notice it.

For each luck journal entry, add: - Location (home alone, coffee shop, class, event, transit, etc.) - Activity (studying, creating, socializing, passively consuming content, exercising, etc.) - Emotional state at the time (approximate: positive, neutral, negative)

After one week, analyze the data: - In which environments do you notice the most luck? - In which emotional states do you notice the most luck? - Is there a pattern between your activity and your noticing rate?

Based on this analysis, what environmental changes could you make to increase your luck-noticing rate? Be specific.

Exercise 5.3 — The Follow-Up Conversion Rate

Over the next two weeks, track your follow-up conversion rate:

For every luck journal entry that has a potential follow-up action: - Record whether you took the action (Y/N) - If yes, record the outcome (1–2 sentences) - If no, record why not

At the end of two weeks, calculate: - What percentage of actionable entries resulted in follow-up? - Of those that resulted in follow-up, what percentage produced any positive outcome?

Then: what is your biggest barrier to follow-up? Design one specific system change that would increase your conversion rate.

Exercise 5.4 — Nadia's Question, Your Answer

Nadia's central observation was that she could not tell whether she was having more lucky moments or simply noticing more of them.

Design a personal experiment to try to distinguish between these two explanations. Consider: - What would you measure? - What would constitute evidence that noticing increased without lucky events increasing? - What would constitute evidence that lucky events actually increased? - What confounds might make it impossible to know for certain?

Write up your experimental design (200 words), then reflect on what Wiseman's research and the broaden-and-build theory suggest the answer probably is.

Exercise 5.5 — The 90-Day Luck Journal Protocol

Design a 90-day evolution of your luck journal practice that goes beyond the initial 14-day exercise. Your design should include:

• How will the practice change across three 30-day phases?
• What review and reflection checkpoints will you build in?
• How will you use the social luck tracking to actively build relationships?
• What would success look like at 90 days? How would you measure it?
• What accountability structures will help you sustain the practice?

Write this as a personal protocol document that you could actually implement starting today.