Our Newfound Fear of Risk • Hacker News Board

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#61

Post by omegant » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 4:50 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #36

omegant wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A very good account of that part of the war is "First in: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan " by Schroen, Gary. He was the chief of the first CIA team to operate inside Afghanistan. A great read, just not what you´ll expect of a CIA operation, everything is donne in a much more "common sense" way than you may think.

Yeah, one of my favorite books. Eric Blehm's "The Only Thing Worth Dying For" covers the same time from the perspective of the ODAs rather than CIA. (The thing I still don't understand is what moron at Group decided to let the battalion leadership deploy to the field, rather than remaining behind. They caused a bunch of friendly fire incidents and generally lost the initiative CIA and the ODA/ODBs had gained. It seem…

Thanks for the heads up. I am going to buy it today.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#62

Post by alayne » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 4:54 PM UTC

graeme wrote: post #47

alayne wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying there weren't overprotective parents before? This thread is full of a lot of confirmation bias / society is going to hell in a hand basket type of discussion. Boy, kids these days, right? I'd like to see some facts because I don't find it very credible.

Talk to some older folks. My dad describes walking to school with other schoolchildren in Montreal in the 1950s. They'd be alone, without adults, going miles. When playing, they were out dusk to dawn on city streets with no adult supervision.

I have talked to older people. I'm sure the 1930s were really when kids were raised right and learned the value of a dollar! And in the 1910s kids contributed to society by doing agricultural work. And in the 1890s...

I would absolutely not prefer to be living in the 1950s than in the 2010s. Society has improved in many ways in the U.S., particularly if you are not a white male, even if perhaps children aren't allowed to wander as freely in large cities. Perhaps Canada is different.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#63

Post by microb » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 4:59 PM UTC

zeteo wrote: post #49

It was a lot easier to tolerate risk when people had a common Big Picture. This could be provided by religion, ideology etc. Such attitudes still hold in some places, e.g. Amish communities seem more resilient after school shootings [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_school_shooting#Amish_com...

Indeed. Repeated use of scapegoats like "communists" and "terrorists" may make up for our move away from religion as a source of shared ideology [1]

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoating#The_.22scapegoat_m...

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#64

Post by decasteve » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

newobj wrote: post #11

Related: at the PARK this weekend, and heard all the following utterances in the span of ten minutes from some parents: "NO RUNNING!" "IT'S DANGEROUS HERE" "YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT" "NO RUNNING!" Talk about instilling fear and creating risk aversion. Sometimes you just have to let a child find out for themselves what's safe and what isn't. What you can get up and dust yourself off from and what you can't. It's hard to…

I get dirty looks from other parents (and grandparents especially) when my daughter and son (5 and 4 resp.) are climbing and jumping off of things at the park. They've become quite talented at jumping from fairly high heights (relatively).

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#65

Post by decasteve » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:05 PM UTC

Our fear of risk associated with exploration comes to mind. Why haven't we sent someone to the Moon (again) or Mars?

Compared to early sailors, mountaineers, and polar explorers we seem to have lost the tolerance for dangerous exploration. Otherwise we should have by now sent a person on a (potentially) one-way trip to Mars.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#66

Post by WalterSear » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:14 PM UTC

aasarava wrote: post #55

newobj wrote: post #11

Related: at the PARK this weekend, and heard all the following utterances in the span of ten minutes from some parents: "NO RUNNING!" "IT'S DANGEROUS HERE" "YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT" "NO RUNNING!" Talk about instilling fear and creating risk aversion. Sometimes you just have to let a child find out for themselves what's safe and what isn't. What you can get up and dust yourself off from and what you can't. It's hard to…

As a parent of young kids, I can attest that many parents in my peer group are constantly reminding their kids not to be careful NOT due to a fear of risk -- but rather from wanting to avoid an injury that's going inconvenience everyone. If your child crashes his bike and gets a bloody knee on the playground, your relaxing afternoon at the park is most likely over and now you have a crying child, bloody clothes, a da…

Everyone? I've only witnessed this behavior as a way to avoid inconveniencing themselves.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#67

Post by WalterSear » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:16 PM UTC

awj wrote: post #43

newobj wrote: post #11

Related: at the PARK this weekend, and heard all the following utterances in the span of ten minutes from some parents: "NO RUNNING!" "IT'S DANGEROUS HERE" "YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT" "NO RUNNING!" Talk about instilling fear and creating risk aversion. Sometimes you just have to let a child find out for themselves what's safe and what isn't. What you can get up and dust yourself off from and what you can't. It's hard to…

As a parent-to-be, this is the one thing that scares me most. You can't learn risk assessment while living in a bubble. Which means I'm going to have to watch my kids run into problems I know I could prevent because what they learn from the experience is more valuable than preventing the situation. That is a terrifyingly difficult decision, given the potential consequences.

If you start very early, you'll give them the wherewithall to mitigate and avoid the worst situations.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#68

Post by contravert » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

BillyMaize wrote: post #45

newobj wrote: post #11

Related: at the PARK this weekend, and heard all the following utterances in the span of ten minutes from some parents: "NO RUNNING!" "IT'S DANGEROUS HERE" "YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT" "NO RUNNING!" Talk about instilling fear and creating risk aversion. Sometimes you just have to let a child find out for themselves what's safe and what isn't. What you can get up and dust yourself off from and what you can't. It's hard to…

Having grown up with parents who acted like this I can say it makes for a miserable childhood. I wasn't allowed to even ride my bike past one neighbors house on each side when I was a kid because my parents were convinced I would be kidnapped. I couldn't go to a friends house without my parents walking me all the way up to the door and then I had to report home every hour or two or they would call the police as if I…

On the other hand, many people don't have a healthy fear of automobiles, considering the lethality of the physics involved in a collision.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#69

Post by lazyjones » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:29 PM UTC

If risk-aversion is the central issue here, there should be a higher risk involved with a) shooting or otherwise harming civilians when you're law enforcement, and b) taking away liberties when you're the lawmaker. But with a dysfunctional justice system and a voting system that cements the broken 2-party regime, this won't ever be the case.

Re: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

#70

Post by SourPatch » Tue, Sep 03, 2013, 5:32 PM UTC

newobj wrote: post #11

Related: at the PARK this weekend, and heard all the following utterances in the span of ten minutes from some parents: "NO RUNNING!" "IT'S DANGEROUS HERE" "YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT" "NO RUNNING!" Talk about instilling fear and creating risk aversion. Sometimes you just have to let a child find out for themselves what's safe and what isn't. What you can get up and dust yourself off from and what you can't. It's hard to…

Here's someone who was willing to accept some risk in order to help her son learn on his own:

http://www.nysun.com/opinion/why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-su...