Humans are notoriously bad at risk assessment. Consider, for example, the risk of being attacked by a shark and the risk of being killed in a car accident. For every 11.5 million beach-goers, there will be one shark attack (not necessarily a fatality), while there is a 1-in-8,000 chance of dying in a car accident on any given year (that chance increases to 1-in-103 over a lifetime). Meanwhile, we casually hop into our cars daily with little concern, but many people refuse to get in the ocean or go past waist-deep for fear of what lurks underneath. Nevermind the fact that there’s more than a 100,000x greater chance of dying in a car accident. These same risk assessment errors extend beyond our latent fears of large predators, too. We fear dying in a plane crash, yet we routinely engage in behaviors that increase likelihood of heart disease, the leading cause of death in America, or accept prescriptions for drugs associated with a 1-in-100 lifetime risk of death. We are terrified of activities that pose very little real risk -- such as public speaking -- while we have a 1-in-2,700 chance of dying from choking on our food.

Humans tend to assess risks based largely on emotion rather than reason. We fear the unknown, the seemingly uncontrollable, the short-term discomfort over the long-term risk, and, in a strange ironic twist, the rare and sensational far more than we fear the commonplace dangers that lurk around every corner. The point isn’t that you should encase yourself in bubble-wrap and go through life fearing the risks of the everyday, but that your risk assessment (and therefore your behaviors) could use a healthy dose of reconsideration. What seemingly “risky” things are you avoiding that could in fact enrich your existence? What seemingly ordinary and innocuous behaviors do you engage in that may be more risky in the long run than you’re giving them credit for?

- PS

5/13/19

• 3 rounds for quality:

• 30s front scale hold (R)

• 15s rest

• 30s front scale hold (L)

• 15s rest

• 30s back scale hold (R)

• 15s rest

• 30s back scale hold (L)

• 15s rest

Then...

• AMRAP 15

• 10 parallette shoot-throughs

• 20 box jumps (24”/20”)

• 30 push-ups

• 40 walking lunge steps (20/leg)