How to increase your surface area for luck
Short summary
The author argues that success hinges on increasing your “surface area” through constant experiments and social interactions rather than waiting for the perfect opportunity. He shares practical habits—like leading with curiosity, overdelivering, giving before taking, airing your odd ideas online, and hosting low-pressure events—to build a dense, high-trust network. Expect initial awkwardness; the payoff comes as key introductions and serendipitous connections accumulate.
- Meeting 1-2 new people daily instead of weekly compounds into far more collaborators and lucky breaks over time
- Overdelivering on small asks (like treating a volunteer legal research gig as a big deal) can snowball into leading major projects or co-founding companies
- Publicly sharing unpolished ideas (via blogs/newsletters) signals values and has directly led to hiring strong candidates
- Hosting low-key recurring gatherings (stoop coffee, pizza meetups) manufactures serendipity more reliably than waiting for it
Full summary
People who land big opportunities don’t wait for the perfect moment. They try a lot of things—talk to strangers, share half-baked ideas, pitch in on random projects—and accept that most experiments fail. The key metric is “surface area for luck”: how many shots on goal you take. If you meet one or two new people a day instead of a week, you compress feedback loops and expose yourself to more potential collaborators. Move fast, show early work, and don’t bail on chats just because the payoff isn’t obvious.
One way to boost your hit rate is to lean into genuine curiosity. Spend weeks talking to a dozen AI engineers, and you’ll pick up more cutting-edge insights than from any thinkpiece. Treat every conversation as a chance to learn, not a checklist item. Next, act like you already belong at the top. When the author volunteered for legal research over Christmas 2021, he treated it like a big deal. That extra effort turned into leading a clinical trial effort and eventually co-founding a company. And always give first: respond quickly to messages, buy someone lunch, solve small problems without asking for anything.
Finally, put your weirdness on display. A Substack newsletter helped the author and blogger Ben Kuhn hire top candidates because it revealed their values. Blogging isn’t about literary flair; it’s about sharing what you care about. And if you organize low-pressure events—coffee on your stoop, pizza meetups—you create more chances for serendipity. Even simple, regular gatherings can knit together a network that rewards generosity and curiosity.