What Are The Riskiest Things In Your Life?

[Zeeman]

Oi Zee

How about couches on the freeway...??

No.. I didn't get hurt And - the bike stayed on it's wheels.

Z...

 

[Kim]

Riskiest things? In my life....definately women. Day to day.....getting out of bed.....(who knows what might happen)

Closest call? Looking the wrong way on my second day in Amsterdam and nearly getting run down by a tram. (honestly...it was inches...)

 

[Hank49]

). I consider risk to be like a currency and I have the desire to spend it for a lot of bang, not like something stupid. I would rather have a headline-glamorous-dramatic death than not wearing a seat belt or slipping on a banana peel.

I'd have to think about this one because I don't plan on taking risks .....too much....but there are times....too many.....where just after I go "hoooly s***...did I just do that? (looking up) thank you".

 

[MSilvia]

Well, that IS the point (for me). I consider risk to be like a currency and I have the desire to spend it for a lot of bang, not like something stupid. I would rather have a headline-glamorous-dramatic death than not wearing a seat belt or slipping on a banana peel.

Gotcha. I guess I just prefer to mitigate risk by wearing seatbelts and keeping an eye out for errant bananna peels than by making lists. When I do risky things, I try to do them as safely as possible. Whenever possible, I try not to do anything stupid. Risk can be managed... stupidity, not so much.

 

[John4455]

How many people out there ponder their actual risks and feel they have them in order?

Nobody is guaranteed tommorrow. Risk can be managed. My biggest fear is waking up one day in my old age and realizing that I haven't really lived.

 

[Mo2vation]

Ken thinks commercial flying is in his top risks. Is that true? I would say flu or house fire would be more probable.

Only because I have no other real risks. I don't smoke. I don't drink to excess. I'm no longer tanning. I drive very little these days, as my commute consists of walking to my home office in my bunny slippers.

No risk in drumming. I mean, I've been hit by flying lumber, but they're drumsticks and not TREES (geeze Ber... :11: )

I took the OP to mean risks we can control or risks we manage. I understand what Andy is saying, but again I believe the OP was referring to physical risks. Maybe I should go back and re-read it. I don't have any and really believe there is no such thing as emotional risks for me. I've never been hurt to the extent that I've been incapacitated. It just can't happen to me. I'm not wired like that. I hold onto things too loosely, and turn the page too quickly. I don't have kids. So what can hurt me that deeply, a woman? Pluh-eese. Never gonna happen.

I'm pretty risk free. I'm as healthy as I've ever been, and in the best shape of my post-high school life. I exercise several times a week, dive several times a week, eat very well, etc. Just got screened, Doc says all is good. Its only the sneeky family stuff that scares me these days.

That's why commercial flying made my short list. There really is nothing else, thankfully.

---
Ken

 

[Teamcasa]

Definitely #1 is driving in and around Tijuana, Mexico. I go there about once a month to build houses and it always a thrill. The traffic circles are the most fun. Also building in the rain ranks right up there! (Gee – what’s that tingling feeling in my hand when I use the Skilsaw?)

#2. Woodworking in my shop. Very sharp things moving very fast.

#3. Welding gas tanks, changing electrical outlets – hot. Other fun stuff like that.

Diving is fun – its not supposed to be dangerous.


Dave

 

[TSandM]

REAL risk is a product of the risk involved in the activity or situation times the amount of time you spend in that activity or situation. That's why driving has got to be one of the riskiest things any of us does.

Diving, on the other hand, has a very low incident rate, and most of us (aside from NWGratefulDiver) don't spend THAT much time doing it. If the fatality rate from diving is one in 100,000 dives (made up number), and you do 50 a year AND avoid the major risk factors for a fatality, how big is that risk?

Statistically, most of us in the western world are going to die of a body failure of some sort -- heart attack, stroke, or cancer. Some of the risk of those things is controllable (don't SMOKE!) and a lot is not. We just don't understand enough of the factors that underlie the deterioration of the body with age to be able to make really intelligent prescriptions. Don't smoke or do amphetamines, keep your body weight under control, and stay active, and you've probably done most of what you can to mitigate those risks.

We're all going to die of something. I don't obsess about it.

 

[rongoodman]

I work as a paramedic, so at the top of the list I would put working at auto accidents on the local expressways, followed by hoist insertions/extractions with the local State Police helicopter(with the roadside being much more dangerous!).

 

[OHGoDive]

REAL risk is a product of the risk involved in the activity or situation times the amount of time you spend in that activity or situation. That's why driving has got to be one of the riskiest things any of us does.

Diving, on the other hand, has a very low incident rate, and most of us (aside from NWGratefulDiver) don't spend THAT much time doing it. If the fatality rate from diving is one in 100,000 dives (made up number), and you do 50 a year AND avoid the major risk factors for a fatality, how big is that risk?

We're all going to die of something. I don't obsess about it.

How many people out there ponder their actual risks and feel they have them in order?

I got the impression that that was the original point of this introspective little thread, looking at REAL or actual risk. There seems to be an impulse in some people to obsess over, or worse, to try to get other people to obsess over, risks that may not be nearly as REAL or actual as they think. Especially when compared to other activities or behaviors that they partake in during their routine day to day life. That attitude, it would seem, leads to populist, yet potentially restrictive, unnecessary, and counterproductive, rules, regulations, or laws.

I don't pretend to understand the psychological aspects of that sort of instinct, but it does seem that some people like to think that they are way out there on the edge, and like to convey that edginess (for lack of a better word) to others, when, in fact, their chosen activity is not only not that risky, but not even the riskiest behavior that they engage in.

I like to look at soon-to-be new parents. They're the most fun to watch as they pad, plug, scour, and remove every potential hazard in their upcoming addition's new home. By the time the second or third kid comes along and reality has set in, they're lucky if they pick up the sharp knives off of the floor.

I'd rather be safe (well, very safe), but realistic, and focus on dealing with the things that are likely to get me that I actually have some control over. Which, when you think about it a little, ain't much.