the porous city

Shooting for the stars: the only rational choice
Recognize that in an uncertain contest against Nature your instinct is wrong. Bigger potential rewards are not correlated with more risk. If you are pursuing a truly uncertain endeavor, like a startup, there is no way of knowing if the larger or smaller possible outcome is more likely to succeed, so the only rational course is to pursue the biggest possible outcome you can imagine.

Uncertain decision-making and the maxi-max criterion

Of course there are other reasons you might want to not pursue "the biggest possible outcome you can imagine" ... maybe you want to pursue the best outcome you can imagine, not just the biggest; maybe you have other constraints, like resources or your desired lifestyle.

Still an important insight - more ambitious goals are not necessarily correlated with more risk.


last modified: 22:09:20 03-Mar-2021
in categories:People/Workingwith

Comment

name*

email

homepage

No html.

what's the second letter of your name?

This is Lukas Bergstrom's weblog. You can also find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tech
AI, Social, Data, WRX, Mobile, Net, Web, Product Management, Energy, barcamp, Crowdsourcing, Business, Visual, Medical, a11y, Web analytics, MacOS, s60, Security, Shopping, Storage, Collaboration, Open, PIM, Hardware, Wearables, Javascript, OS, Automobile, RSS, Audio, Android, Development

Other
Transportation, Friday, History, Agriculture, Housing, California, Life hacks, Personal care, Surfing, Travel, Law, Food & Drink, Activism, Games, Berlin, Feminism, Video, Geography, Statistics, Politik, Clothes, NYC, Podcasts, Sports, Bicycling, L.A., Quizzes, Minnesota, Boston, CrowdFlower, Toys, San Francisco

Music
Good tracks, Booking, Mixes, Mailing lists, Business, Making, Boston, Labels, Events, Mp3s, Streams, L.A., History, Hip-hop, Musicians, Shopping, Videos, Lyrics, Reviews, House

People
Life hacks, Stories, Languages, Family, Exercise, Working with, Weblogs, Heroes, Enemies, Vocations, ADD, Me, Health, Subcultures, Buddhism, Meditation, Gossip, MOTAS, Friends

Commerce
Personal finance, Personal services, Web, Taxes, Real Estate, IP Law, Macroeconomics, Non-profit, Management consulting, Microfinance, Marketing and CRM, Insurance, International Development, Investing, Shopping

Arts
Spoken Word, Comix, iPad bait, Sculpture, Visual, Rhetoric, Poetry, Events, Literature, Desktop wallpaper bait, Outlets, Movies, Humor, Animation, Burning Man

Design
Tools, Data visualization, Type, Cool, Web, Presentations, Algorithmic, IA, Furniture, Process, Architecture, User experience

Science
Networks, Psychology, Statistics and Data, Cognition, Environment, Zoology, Physics

Travel
Uganda, Kenya, Vagabond '08, Kingdom of Siam

Photos
Photos I Wish I'd Taken, Friends, Moblog

Philosophy
Mind

Internet classic

One Acre Fund

Mathematics

Subscribe to this site's rss feed