<story><title>The privilege of risk</title><url>http://blog.edtechie.net/asides/the-privilege-of-risk/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Tomminn</author><text>I remember talking to a friend, who was stressed about the risk in her next career move, and I said:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Realistically, the worst case scenario is that you have to move back in with your parents for a while, and I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure they&amp;#x27;d be stoked to have you back.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;And she just burst out laughing. Because it had never occurred to her that that is &lt;i&gt;exactly&lt;/i&gt; the limit of how much it was possible for her to materially suffer.</text></comment>
<story><title>The privilege of risk</title><url>http://blog.edtechie.net/asides/the-privilege-of-risk/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>colemannugent</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Risk becomes a vehicle by which privilege reinforces itself – only the privileged can take risks and only risk is rewarded. Which is not to say we should all be cautious and people or institutions should never venture to do unusual things.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I agree with what the author is trying to say here, but disagree with the second part of the first sentence. Everyone can take risks, and risk is not the only factor that determines reward.&lt;p&gt;Anyone can take risks, but me investing half my net worth into a company is fundamentally different than Elon Musk throwing half of his into a business venture. While we both would essentially be betting the same 50%, taking 50% from me might put me into financial hardship while Musk, though I&amp;#x27;m sure he would be very upset about it, would not struggle to make ends meet.&lt;p&gt;Say both of our 50% bets paid off and we made a 5x return on investment, that would immediately put me into a higher tier of quality of life, while Musk is still just another billionaire. In this example I, the comparatively less privileged, have far more to gain than the more privileged Musk.&lt;p&gt;From a purely financial standpoint Musk seems to come out better in terms of risk to reward ratio, but there is more than just money at play in our internal risk evaluation strategies.</text></comment>