How do we make a car safer to drive? By installing crumple zones, air bags, seat belts, traction control and ABS.
But how do we make a safer driver for the car? By removing all the above, and instead placing on the steering wheel a pointed metal rod, whose razor-sharp tip is but an inch from the driver's chest.
Which car is going to have a driver who is more aware and focused?
An analogy (stretched a bit): your life is the car, but you are the driver. You can engage in studious risk-minimisation for life. Be careful what you eat, travel only in areas that are very safe and well-trodden, stick with the job you took ten years ago, hang out with the same group of friends, shop in the usual places, better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Like the driver of the fully-equipped car, you'll be meandering through life in a socially acceptable daze. Safe, yes. Boring, yes.
Living a risk-free life is tedious. Risk minimisation is sensible at some level, but above a minimum it dulls our senses and stifles our opportunities for experience and growth.
Take more risks. Go and meet the devil you don't know. Try new things. Forget about making your world safe for you to live in - focus on making yourself a better 'liver' of the life you have. Live carefully but not over-safely. And above all, like the driver of the car with the spike pointed at his chest, live with full alertness and focus.
But how do we make a safer driver for the car? By removing all the above, and instead placing on the steering wheel a pointed metal rod, whose razor-sharp tip is but an inch from the driver's chest.
Which car is going to have a driver who is more aware and focused?
An analogy (stretched a bit): your life is the car, but you are the driver. You can engage in studious risk-minimisation for life. Be careful what you eat, travel only in areas that are very safe and well-trodden, stick with the job you took ten years ago, hang out with the same group of friends, shop in the usual places, better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Like the driver of the fully-equipped car, you'll be meandering through life in a socially acceptable daze. Safe, yes. Boring, yes.
Living a risk-free life is tedious. Risk minimisation is sensible at some level, but above a minimum it dulls our senses and stifles our opportunities for experience and growth.
Take more risks. Go and meet the devil you don't know. Try new things. Forget about making your world safe for you to live in - focus on making yourself a better 'liver' of the life you have. Live carefully but not over-safely. And above all, like the driver of the car with the spike pointed at his chest, live with full alertness and focus.
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