TY - JOUR
T1 - Success and luck in creative careers
AU - Janosov, Milán
AU - Battiston, Federico
AU - Sinatra, Roberta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Luck is considered a crucial ingredient to achieve impact in all creative domains, despite their diversity. For instance, in science, the movie industry, music, and art, the occurrence of the highest impact work and a hot streak within a creative career are very difficult to predict. Are there domains that are more prone to luck than others? Here, we provide new insights on the role of randomness in impact in creative careers in two ways: (i) we systematically untangle luck and individual ability to generate impact in the movie, music, and book industries, and in science, and compare the luck factor between these fields; (ii) we show the surprising presence of randomness in the relationship between collaboration networks and timing of career hits. Taken together, our analysis suggests that luck consistently affects career impact across all considered sectors and improves our understanding in pinpointing the key elements in driving success.
AB - Luck is considered a crucial ingredient to achieve impact in all creative domains, despite their diversity. For instance, in science, the movie industry, music, and art, the occurrence of the highest impact work and a hot streak within a creative career are very difficult to predict. Are there domains that are more prone to luck than others? Here, we provide new insights on the role of randomness in impact in creative careers in two ways: (i) we systematically untangle luck and individual ability to generate impact in the movie, music, and book industries, and in science, and compare the luck factor between these fields; (ii) we show the surprising presence of randomness in the relationship between collaboration networks and timing of career hits. Taken together, our analysis suggests that luck consistently affects career impact across all considered sectors and improves our understanding in pinpointing the key elements in driving success.
KW - Creative careers
KW - Dynamics of impact
KW - Science of science
KW - Success
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083994297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00227-w
DO - 10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00227-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083994297
SN - 2193-1127
VL - 9
JO - EPJ Data Science
JF - EPJ Data Science
IS - 1
M1 - 9
ER -