Risk, Decoupled

Editor’s Note: Yes, today’s offering is paywalled. All but a handful of my 516-and-counting posts here at Substack have been free, and that will continue, but I do also want to thank my paid subscribers for their faith in my efforts, and will, going forward, offer a couple paywalled articles per month. Again, most of my content will remain free-to-all, and I do believe I’m verbose enough to keep every subscriber satisfied. Cheers and thanks for reading!

Our national zeitgeist has been dominated these past few days by the disappearance and tragic end of five people who took a tourist trip, twelve thousand feet deep, to the wreckage of the Titanic. A few days ago, contact was lost with the Titan submersible, a five person submarine, during its descent. During the three day span before it was concluded that the Titan was crushed during its descent, killing all its passengers instantly, everyone and their grandmother had an opinion on the matter. Most of those I saw were disbelief at the supposed slap-dash nature of the craft (e.g. operated by a video game joystick), mockery of rich people doing stupid things with their money, and not a few attempts to connect this tragedy to wokeness. Along with some "stakeholders" (in this case descendants of dead Titanic passengers) demanding that such tourist visits be halted.

But for the relentless assault of news and opinion, I'd not have thought much of this event. People took a risk, and it went poorly.

That's life. That's reality. We each take risks every day. Most of them small and low-consequence, but risks nonetheless. And that's how it has been ever since the first hominids emerged.

Societal evolution has at its core the mitigation of risk. Our ancestors switched from hunting and gathering to agriculture in order to reduce risk of starvation. Shelters were ideated and improved to reduce our risk from the elements. Sanitation technology emerged to reduce our risk from contaminated food and water. Insurance, safety equipment, and countless "better" practices emerged as risk mitigators.

Yet, risk remains part of life. Not only does it remain, some actively face it head-on.

Why?

Because there are many occasions where higher risk produces greater reward.

Reward comes in many forms. For some, it's wealth. For some, it's success. For some, it's the satisfaction of achievement.

Why climb Everest? Why play contact sports? Why sail westward from Palos de la Frontera into the unknown? Why ride a rocket into space?

You might not. I might not. But, there have always been and always will be those who do. It's in our wiring, at a level even deeper than the adrenaline rush from watching your horse win its race, drawing face cards on split aces, or seeing your business mobbed with happy customers.

Nevertheless, social media was littered with declarations of "I'd never do that."