Quotes About Risk

If we do not play in the dangerous surf, we will drown in puddles.

Marija, if we do not play in the dangerous surf, we will drown in puddles.

It's something else, something in me that wants things always to remain the same, always safe. It's a basic fear of life, I guess. I've never admitted that to anyone, and I guess I've never admitted it to myself, but it's the truth.

Remember: You don't want to be meeting your neighbours for the first time in the middle of the night when your house is burning

Key is not to do things that cause you to be labeled as "dangerous.

If most auto accidents happen within five miles of home, why not move ten miles away?

Tell me, McFadden, what do you think of our beloved Mr. Chamberlain?" Mac didn't care for such direct questions. All his adult life had been spent in the mentality of the gulag, never openly complaining, always seeming to conform, never risking a row. Perhaps that's why he had agreed to marry, not so much to avoid disappointing the lady but more because it was the simplest way to fit into the flow of things.

Some people come to the edge of the cliff and they look over, then run away in fear. They never realize it's possible to fly, to soar away, to be free. They spend their lives crawling along cliff tops without ever finding the courage. Don't spend your life crawling

The result is the Strategy Paradox: strategies with the greatest possibility of success also have the greatest possibility of failure. Resolving this paradox requires a new way of thinking about strategy and uncertainty.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."2

We feel a lot of pressure about looking silly or appearing weak, whatever that means, or being a failure. You have to keep in your head: what's the worst that can happen?

Decisions make themselves when you're coming downhill at seventy kilometres an hour. Suddenly there's the edge of nothingness in front of you. Swerve left? Swerve right? Or think about it and die? In your head you swerve both ways …" Excerpt From: Michael Frayn. "Copenhagen

Through the Trapdoor

But for most of the leading causes of death, the science shows that our genes often account for only 10–20 percent of risk at most.15 For instance, as you'll see in this book, the rates of killers like heart disease and major cancers differ up to a hundredfold among various populations around the globe. But when people move from low- to high-risk countries, their disease rates almost always change to those of the new environment.

Though the majority of lung cancer is attributed to smoking, approximately a quarter of all cases occur in people who've never smoked.21 Although some of these cases are due to secondhand smoke, another contributing cause may be another potentially carcinogenic plume: fumes from frying.

As the Mayo Clinic rather indelicately put it, "Most people are infected with Salmonella by eating foods that have been contaminated by feces."102 How does it get there? In slaughter plants, birds are typically gutted by a metal hook, which too often punctures their intestines and can expel feces onto the flesh itself. According to the latest national FDA retail-meat survey, about 90 percent of retail chicken showed evidence of contamination with fecal matter.

A recent study of 150,000 Americans was able to examine the issue more thoroughly. Higher stroke rates were found among individuals sleeping six hours or less, or nine hours or more. Those at lowest risk got around seven or eight hours of sleep a night.

doubled your odds of getting pancreatic cancer.89 What about people who eat chicken? The largest study to ever address that question is the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, which followed 477,000 people for about a decade. The researchers found a 72 percent increased risk of pancreatic cancer for every fifty grams of chicken consumed daily.90 And that's not much meat, under two ounces—just about a quarter of a chicken breast.

green, leafy vegetables a week had roughly half the odds of getting lymphoma compared with those who ate less than one serving a week.12 Some of the plant-based protection might have been due to the antioxidant properties of fruits and vegetables. Higher dietary intake of antioxidants is associated with significantly lower lymphoma risk.

Note I said dietary intake, not supplementary intake. Antioxidant supplements don't appear to work.13 For example, getting lots of vitamin C in your diet is associated with lower lymphoma risk, but taking in even more vitamin C in pill form did not seem to help.

Combinations of antioxidants like vitamin A, vitamin E, and beta-carotene in pill form were associated with increased risk of death in those who took them.15 Supplements contain only a select few antioxidants, whereas your body relies on hundreds of them, all working synergistically to create a network to help the body dispose of free radicals.

Most people with multiple myeloma live for only a few years after diagnosis. Though treatable, multiple myeloma is considered incurable. That's why prevention is key. Fortunately, dietary changes may reduce our risk of all these blood cancers.

cell chronic lymphatic leukemia (including small lymphocytic leukemia and prolymphocytic lymphocytic leukemia).34 The EPIC study found that risk increased between 56 percent and 280 percent for every 50 grams of poultry consumed daily. For comparison, a cooked, boneless chicken breast may weigh as much as 384 grams.35 Why is there so much lymphoma and leukemia risk associated with eating such relatively small amounts of poultry?

The researchers noted that their most important finding may be that cholesterol consumption was a strong predictor of cirrhosis and liver cancer. Those consuming the amount of cholesterol found in two Egg McMuffins34 or more each day appeared to double their risk of hospitalization or death.35