risk aversion

Research suggests that Generation Z takes fewer risks than previous generations. Do you think your generation is less willing to take risks? Why or why not?
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When researchers built and lived in Biosphere 2 (in my home state of Arizona) to prototype colonies on the Moon or Mars, trees kept inexplicably collapsing. Turns out, wind is necessary for the development of "reaction wood," critical for strong, adult trunks after their juvenile years of environmental stress. Because in contrast to the unalterable fragility of wine glasses or the toughness of granite, trees are antifragile—resilience is inculcated from exposure to stress, to entropy, to risk.

These insights animate Jonathan Haidt's "The Anxious Generation," which argues that children, like trees, are antifragile. My generation has suffered from two vicious influences that have undermined our collective elasticity and perseverance, and with that, our willingness to take risks. Inundated since adolescence, or worse, since toddlerhood, by overprotective parenting in the physical world and underprotective in the virtual, Gen Z has simultaneously become ill-equipped to face and overcome crises while suffering from the demobilizing effects of depression and anxiety. It follows that risk-taking comes more naturally to those who spent their childhood—when we are most malleable and impressionable—roaming, exploring, and resolving conflicts independent of adult intervention.

Past generations faced existential challenges, too, yet did not become so paralyzed. Reality, however brutal, was inescapable. Unplugging from the toxic, hyper-optimized online world and reengaging with the mess that is reality reminds us how truly dynamic, durable, and risk-tolerant humanity can be.

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