Accidentally Preventing Depression

In Rebecca Brachman's drug talk, she outlines some of the luckiest discoveries in the field of science. One such discovery came in the 1960s, while scientists and researchers were looking into drugs for curing tuberculosis. Iproniazid was one of the drugs that came out of this research. Administering it to patients, the doctors found that their moods would increase dramatically, to a state of euphoria -- however, the drug didn't cure or treat the disease in any way. This was how the first anti-depressant was discovered.

For Brachman, the luck in such a discovery still requires adequate preparation. While so-called dumb luck certainly exists, she's more interested in "smart luck," which equates to being mentally prepared for when fortuitous events take place. If people aren't ready to accept or make use of unforeseen, potentially lucky outcomes, those outcomes won't be lucky at all; they'll be inconveniences that get swept away and forgotten about.