Today's Reading

Life is a Risk. Steven den Beste applies his engineer's sensibility to discuss caution and courage in our lives. A short excerpt:

"For the courageous side of the game, the consequences of inaction are definitely part of the risk/cost/benefit calculation. The focus is on results, not on responsibility. I think that the best summary of this point of view I've heard is, "The standard isn't perfection. The standard is the alternative." ...
The cautious have an extreme view of performance: anything short of perfect success is a failure, and all failures are equally bad. If the rationally courageous try to base decisions on cost/benefit/risk analyses, then the cautious base theirs on what's known as "the precautionary principle". ...
Who holds these views? Generally speaking, the courageous view dominates in the US, and the cautious view is far stronger in Europe. (Both are present in both places, of course.) The courageous view motivates businesses and engineering, while the cautious view dominates among those that Virginia Postrel refers to as the "enemies of the future". ...
Achievement builds confidence, and failure erodes it. The 20th century was far more kind to America than it was to Europe. America faced its challenges with a can-do attitude and generally triumphed, while Europe was devastated by two world wars and was the front line in a third (the Cold War), and became increasingly risk-averse. By the mid 1960's most of Europe had achieved a reasonably comfortable life, and the fixation was less on how it could be further improved as on how it might end up getting worse again."

His insightful discussion is well worth the read.
-bear