Perception's paradox: Danger or Delusion
We evolved to live in small tribes and now live outside of our natural habitat, in an advanced civilization. One effect of this mismatch is that there are a bunch of things that feel dangerous to us that aren't actually dangerous, leading us to be way too risk averse. Like:
- Asking someone out on a date
- Trying something new even though you'll suck at it at first
- Quitting your job to start a company or try a career in the arts
- Putting your real voice out there on controversial topics
For primates living in a small tribe, rejection, embarrassment, failure, and criticism posed actual material dangers. These things are not dangerous today, but our software hasn't been updated. So we miss out on living our best life, hiding in the 1-4 zone of the danger scale. In a world of overly risk averse people, the epiphany that the 4-7 zone is actually a safe place to play is a superpower.
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Well written. It also puts into perspective why Dunbar’s number is responsible for why we can’t properly comprehend scale.
I'll tell this to my colleague who wrote it in our Slack group. 🙂
Also send him the link to source https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1714667078261653669
Beautiful Think we all need to develop a certain psyche and stop overthinking about a lot of the things that do haunt us
Recently did this imagination exercise (after watching a video) where I shut my eyes, imagined I was back in my childhood house, and met my young self.
Was an interesting experience, just realising how far I've come, how I'd be surprised to find myself where I am now, and also the things about myself I've lost in this journey of adulthood
Yeah, we often fear taking even small risks in life and end up living a mediocre life. However, when we reflect on how far we've come and recognize our untapped potential, our worries fade away. That moment of self-realization becomes the only motivation we need. Many may find this exercise childish, but it's exactly what we need during these low moments.
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A wild kenny loggins plays
Humans are not wired to play games where one win is needed and losses don’t matter. Folks who figure this out and focus on creating more opportunities to win while handling rejections well - do better in the long term. Being able to play at the 6-7 range is a good mental model to adopt.
