It’s OK To Be Scared
Everyone in the world seems to tell you to assume more risk - both from career and personal standpoints. Here is some shit I keep hearing, just everywhere
leave your country and move away.
leave your current partner to find a better partner.
quit your job and do x [startup / mission / whatever].
quit your job and travel the world in a dangerous place.
leave your main research program and try a risky one.
quit college.
I think this advice is mostly useless and stupid.
You should not default to want to take more risk in life for no reason.
The first reason is the obvious one. This is because decisions with risk can go badly. Sometimes catastrophically. Things can go wrong by chance, like doing a BASE jump. Or, if you are uncomfortable taking risks, then in high stakes situations you won’t be relaxed enough to make good decisions.
So if this is the case, why do people love advertising taking risk so much? Why do people espouse it as strong advice?
This is because most people who tell you to take risk are either:
People who have irrationally [more downside than upside] taken risk then got lucky, and so then start spreading the risk taking world view. OR:
They are people who can afford to take risk (i.e. they have rich families, a stable immigration situation, live in a developed country, or live in SF).
A lot of people are not in the latter camp. That’s fine, just a fact of life. If you are outside your home country then your visa is likely dependent on a job with a required minimum salary. Or most people have kids and a family they need to support.
I myself only started to take more risks when I could afford to. I built some savings until my immigration situation got more stable. If I left my job prematurely and things didn’t work out I’d have to go back to Malaysia, which would be a fail. So it was reasonable to wait on a safety net before taking risks like spending more time blogging and moving to riskier jobs.
And as you may notice, my following has got a bit bigger, so I’m more comfortable writing edgier stuff and doing wilder science on this blog.
I’m not saying you need to afford to take risks to start taking them.
I personally just became more comfortable when I could. I now like the strategy where I spend 70% of my time doing things that are safe and reliable, and 30% of my time doing potshots, like bioreactors. And so if I can take more risks whilst being more comfortable, why not?