I also think this “upside decay” idea has some weight as an argument for some kind of economic reform. There are many would-be entrepreneurs whose potential rem

I also think this “upside decay” idea has some weight as an argument for some kind of economic reform. There are many would-be entrepreneurs whose potential remains untapped because the low odds of an extreme upside aren’t worth the high odds of a (relatively low-cost) downside to them as an individual, even if those odds are attractive to the society when scaled across many individuals. I don’t see any way to overcome that discrepancy between the individual and the society except by guaranteeing the individual some acceptable standard of living even when they fail. VC tries to do this, but only for ideas tied to specific economic sectors. Lambda school did something that’s halfway there (cover basic expenses, but only for schooling — not for business ventures). Basic income is the broadest idea that helps free entrepreneurs to pursue more frictionlessly these ideas that society benefits from without worry of the cost of failure, yet I hardly ever see people frame it that way.