Virtually no one actually likes risk (pathological gamblers are an exception, but they are understandably rare in the white-collar world). By "risk" I don't mea

Virtually no one actually likes risk (pathological gamblers are an exception, but they are understandably rare in the white-collar world). By "risk" I don't mean variance (or, equivalently, standard deviation) and I don't mean small bets with limited consequences. I'm talking about real risks that threaten one's career, reputation, and livelihood. No one fucking wants those; most people in business would end a human life (though few would admit it) to remove one from their existence. So, here's why "risk" is so weird and problematic. VCs will take numerical risks (standard deviation) because it is their job, just as some traders will gamble $10M on a 51/49 trade and not feel terribly bad if it goes against them. Almost no one is willing to take a real life-altering risk... and, to be honest, I don't blame them. This is especially true of employees, who are incentivized to be as risk averse as possible: if things go bad, they get fired; if things go well, their bosses profit. It would be better if we could just admit this and accept it and basically agree that no one should be expected, as a matter of daily living, to put their well-being at risk. Income is a utility; you don't want it turned off. Furthermore, when people are in precarious circumstances, society ought to do what it can to fix that. Thing is, the rich profit by our culture's lionization of "risk takers", while ignoring the fact that most of the people who hit it big took no real risks to get there. Sure, they could have lost $10,000 of their millionaire daddy's money, or had to call "weird Uncle John" to ask for a VP-level position in a consulting firm, but they weren't taking the real risks that most of us have to take in daily life and get a lot less for. This nonsense prevents us from agreeing that, most often, true risk is a pretty bad thing that we have good reasons not to want in our lives.