Mike Carruthers

Brian is an associate professor in global politics at University College in London, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and author of the book Fluke,

Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters.

Hey, Brian, welcome to Something You Should Know.

Thanks for having me on the show.

So explain what I started talking about here, how everything can affect everything.

Okay, and I think people have heard, you know, if a butterfly flaps its wings a certain way at a certain time, it could cause a hurricane halfway around the world.

And in your case, I mean, if your great-grandfather's first wife hadn't killed her whole family, you wouldn't be here.

But something else might have happened that was good, and you wouldn't be here to see it.

But you don't know...

What would happen?

You don't know if it would be good or bad.

So what do we do with this?

Is there anything other than observing this that we can take away?

Well, one of the things I've always noticed is how people look at their life and look at particularly their career as something that they do, that it's their responsibility to do.

But yet when you look back on your life and your career, you see that so much of what happened

is not what you did, but who you met and when you met them and opportunities that presented themselves because you were in this place.

It had nothing to, well, it had something to do, but it didn't have as much to do with your grit and determination to get up in the morning and advance your career.

It was just chance.

But it also is disempowering, I think, in one way.

Because, like, for example, if you miss the train, it could change your life forever.