Mathematics Of The Downside
Why Understanding Risk Intimately Is Key To A Meaningful Life
Take advantage of it now, while you are young, and suffer all you can, because these things don’t last your whole life — Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
People aren’t stupid. The problem is that our educational system has an amazing blind spot concerning risk literacy. We teach our children the mathematics of certainty — geometry and trigonometry — but not the mathematics of uncertainty, statistical thinking. And we teach our children biology but not the psychology that shapes their fears and desires. Even experts, shockingly, are not trained how to communicate risks to the public in an understandable way — Gird Gigerenzer, Risk Savvy
Times like these remind me of the following words from Baz Luhrman’s song ‘Everyone is Free to Wear Sunscreen:
