What was the deal with the Lost numbers?

They were just to add mystery. They wanted everyone to think they had some deep meaning and so used them for all kinds of things: Hurley winning the lottery, the signal to the guy in Australia who hurley got the numbers from, the Hatch cover(given to the worker to engrave by Dr. Chang), the Hatch computer to reset the timer and individually and in groups for many other things like the numbers assigned to the candidates, etc.

(4,8,15,16,23,42) these numbers are in some equation and The producers wanted to add some spice to people who like to explore the mysteries of LOST. They didn't have a solid meaning in the series just like some more other things but almost every significant number mentioned in the season was one of these or a series of numbers that add up to these or also letters that mean these numbers. Check http://thelostnumbers.blogspot.com to see the extreme times these numbers are mentioned The valenzetti equation created by enzo valenzetti which uses the same numbers is a formula that was used to predict the exact ammount of years months and days before human kind becomes extinct. So this is why LOST producers where interested in them