Bruce Schneier has a remarkably clear essay on Our Newfound Fear of Risk which could as easily be about corporations, finance, or relationships as it is about its chosen topic. It reminded me a lot of one of the better books I read this year, Antifragile by Nassim Taleb.
What you think about Antifragile, Matt? Here in Brazil the book hasn’t been published yet, so I’m thinking of import it. It adds some nice pieces for your jigsaw puzzle?
There’s nothing wrong with risk itself, the challenge lies in quality risk identification and then quantifying it. People are very happy to accept the risks they know about and understand, but will often over-compensate for the unknown. I see businesses get distracted by the “shiny” but rare risks and focus too much time/money, and forget about the daily stuff that is actually a real issue (security theater anyone?)
I agree that the principals described could easily apply to finance and relationships – that’s a whole different world right there, seemingly insignificant risks can cause the apocalypse!! I’ve stopped asking “how much did that cost?”, too risky… 😉