When Joe Parker offered to take a photo of a vacationing family at a beach in Waikiki, he had no idea at first that he'd just met his half-brother. Rick Hill, the man he'd just photographed, had a noticeable Massachusetts accent, and Parker commented on it. They soon discovered that they grew up in neighbouring towns. Parker started throwing out some names, including his dad's, Dickie Halligan. To Parker's great surprise, Hill replied that Halligan was his father too.
Was this impromptu family reunion just a lucky coincidence or did fate intervene? Or are surprise encounters like this one a lot more common than we think?
The story of Joe Parker is one of many delightful anecdotes that the University of Toronto's Jeffrey Rosenthal, a professor at the department of statistical sciences, shares in Knock on Wood: Luck, Chance, and the Meaning of Everything. His new book explores the concept of luck in its various forms through the lens of a statistician.
After the release of his first book on randomness and probability, Rosenthal says friends, colleagues and readers kept asking him whether he believes in luck or not. Unable to give an answer, he realized that there must be more to the topic than meets the eye.
He embarked on a two-year research and writing journey that led him to collect countless stories, read piles of research papers and watch hours of Netflix - who said research can't be fun? (He also coincidently discovered that he was born on a Friday, the 13th.)
The result is a light-hearted, yet insightful analysis of the meaning of luck, its different faces, and how to tell the difference between "dumb luck" and the things we can control.
Dee Keilholz of the department of statistical sciences spoke to Rosenthal about some of his findings.
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