I think there are examples supporting many different approaches and it depends immensely on what you’re trying to do, the levers available to you and the surrounding context. E.g. in the more bold and audacious, less cooperative direction, Chiune Sugihara or Osckar Schindler come to mind. Petrov doesn’t seem like a clear example in the “non-reckless” direction, and I’d put Arkhipov in a similar boat (they both acted rapidly under uncertainty in a way the people around them disagreed with, and took responsibility for a whole big situation when it probably would have been very easy to say to themselves that it wasn’t their job to do things other than obey orders and go with the group).
I agree. Reading your comment made me think that it might be interesting — even if just as a small experiment — to map out which historical figures we feel struck the ~right balance between ambition and caution.
I don’t know if it would reveal much, but perhaps reading about a few such people could help me (and maybe others) better calibrate our own mix of drive and risk averseness. I find it easier to internalize these balances through real people and stories than through abstract arguments. And perhaps that kind of reflection could, in perhaps only a small way, help prevent future crises of judgment like FTX.
I think there are examples supporting many different approaches and it depends immensely on what you’re trying to do, the levers available to you and the surrounding context. E.g. in the more bold and audacious, less cooperative direction, Chiune Sugihara or Osckar Schindler come to mind. Petrov doesn’t seem like a clear example in the “non-reckless” direction, and I’d put Arkhipov in a similar boat (they both acted rapidly under uncertainty in a way the people around them disagreed with, and took responsibility for a whole big situation when it probably would have been very easy to say to themselves that it wasn’t their job to do things other than obey orders and go with the group).
I agree. Reading your comment made me think that it might be interesting — even if just as a small experiment — to map out which historical figures we feel struck the ~right balance between ambition and caution.
I don’t know if it would reveal much, but perhaps reading about a few such people could help me (and maybe others) better calibrate our own mix of drive and risk averseness. I find it easier to internalize these balances through real people and stories than through abstract arguments. And perhaps that kind of reflection could, in perhaps only a small way, help prevent future crises of judgment like FTX.