[quote=davelj][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=afx114]If it weren’t for optimism and “dumb risk” there wouldn’t be footprints on the moon.[/quote]

Afx: Well said and exactly right.

Scaredy: At some point you realize there’s a difference between “living” and “existing”. Spoken as someone who used to jump out of airplanes as a job, “living” is a LOT more fun. I don’t recommend the getting shot at part of that same job, but as Winston Churchill opined, there is something exhilarating about getting shot at and missed. You have to experience Life, the good, the bad, and everything in between. What’s the point of having been here, otherwise?

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Good point, Allan. Two things come to mind. First, a quote from the Most Interesting Man in the World (Dos Equis commercials): “You only live once. Make sure it’s enough.”

Second, and more seriously, we as a society benefit from the aggregate “irrationality” of the risk takers. Yes, 99% may fail, but we benefit greatly from the 1% that succeed – whether in athletics, art or invention. Thus, what is “irrational” for the individual is necessary for the greater good. Now, this doesn’t extend to finance and banking, where society is on the hook for the mistakes. But we probably want more Bill Gates’ running around and trying to innovate, despite the unlikelihood of their success, as opposed to less. We don’t care who individually comes up with the successful innovations – just so long as someone does.[/quote]

Dave: George Bernard Shaw said it best:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him… The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself… All progress depends on the unreasonable man.”