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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-06
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3HX9VNl180
force anything else I really Islamic acknowledge how incredibly fortunate I've been for more than a decade I've had the rare privilege of moving to the mountains climbing and skiing guiding others there and I went through those experiences for anything it's been sunrise and sunset from sleeping bag bidding an alpine lake still chilly living in a car digging camp in the rain being above the clouds feeling
small and huge spaces feeling triumphant climbing rocks climbing nice climbing rock and snow climb whiskeys scheme big steep lines stomach Shane the camaraderie of the team that you trust my favorite part give and take a nap when it's all over I'll be honest I think the mounds are rad totally awesome and and I hope in some small way I've convinced you the same thing but the
mounds arm without risk see in my line of work I frequently get asked how I can do things like back interest being alpine climbing understood dangerous pressing the heart of that question is really operating in a risky environment under conditions of uncertainty but that describes life in general right should you start a business she got married should you run for office were eating those chili cheese
fries rector afternoon we all have decisions like this the face %HESITATION and those are decisions come up a lot for me so let's explore a few examples you're the top of the line she dropped in ski it I mean looks pretty rad right there's a lot to consider was masking ability Steve is the terrain what's the snow packed hearing how likely is an avalanche what's the
weather doing right there's probably some pretty obvious explicit physical risk that you're thinking about your mind here maybe things like falling hypothermia heat stroke sunburn %HESITATION falling off a cliff rocks falling off a cliff on to you the ever present risk of violence snowy death by fixation avalanche right a typical day in the office for me and you may be thinking that's totally crazy and it
has nothing to do with your life but I guarantee you it does because you take risk every day to you just might think of it not think of it that way slim or implicit right you living and states there's a good chance you driven a car before and we gonna carry my think coming at some brushes on their work which you not necessarily thing about that
you might die in a fire car crash that day because the person the car next he was texting right book we engage at risk every day all day and that's okay of course we'll sneak into the bigger picture this is Ben Lomond a few you might recognize being right here on Aug anytime that you can see it outside and that line looking at skis down the
south face of this piece Edison's four thousand vertical feet variable snowpack there's patches of ice cliff there's trees there's avalanches Durrell lot of hazards to identify and to mitigate and those hazards if you don't trust them can cost you life and limb and that can make you justifiably afraid and that is a good thing here is a useful force in situations here's how I know right
here in my gut and I'm about to take the risk right fear makes me asking questions like what if the business fails or if I get injured that worthless chili cheese fries would direct my afternoon but we can't be paralyzed by fear right for paralyzed by fear we never get anything done at some point if you want to reward you have to take the risk and
the bigger the rest the bigger the reward now when you think about risk you probably phone in one of two categories if you're the type person like really gung ho it's like let's go for it and adventurous or maybe that person is a little more reserved and cautious and care form like to sit back and see how things play out both are perfectly valid but do
this I'd like to go for now I'm right there with you you may have illusory superiority biased which means that you have more confidence than you have competence in other words you don't know what you don't know see we're gonna go see this line you think you're going to look like this but in reality you look like this now if you the cautious type victims of
its own problems right because you never take the risk in the first place you miss all the opportunities if you ever take the chance how are you gonna get the rewards so I think there's room in our lives for practice risk taking in whatever it is you want to do %HESITATION but not just like any kind of practice we need deliberate practice consumer practices different from
regular practice in two important ways the first is that it intentionally pushes your limits structure comfort zone every time that you practice because you have a specific goal that you want to reach and the second the genie accurate feedback you practicing the right things so how much practice do you need well nothing that will publish a book called out liars the popularizing notion that you need
ten thousand hours of practice to become an expert there's some debate about how true that is but I think that ten thousand are was a good benchmark so if you're doing it as a full time job that you take about five years because something is a hobby on the side if you are as a week what have you then it could take you twenty years or
more you have to be disciplined consistent this to work here's an example and I can't practice in the mountains writing out my friend Nathan he sliding on a snow slope even uses ice axe to stop himself from going any further now we come across a self arresting me first learned this process it's very deliberate if to think about it a lot sees first just like get
your body reoriented such like Billy for some the snow and if it seems kind of crouched position like the down but back then you gotta put your eyes I can write spotting a leverage into unpleasant pressure and of course you got to turn your head to the side you're actually stab yourself in the face all that takes time and effort and energy and why you're doing
all the things you're sliding down a snow slope ray you're picking up speed if you pick up enough speed you don't get a stop at all and when that happens you go Trina slovinia whatever's at the bottom with bone shattering force them because we have very fragile squishy bodies as people you don't really tend to enjoy that experience now in this case Nathan will be fine
there's nothing here to the bottom this however as you can imagine is pretty terrible place to learn this skill right because there's thousands of feet of vertical drop behind Josh there there's clips on anything that you can't see in the photo there's big crosses the giant cracks in the glacier down below bad place to learn before you get to this place you'd have a school totally
dialed super practice so back to Nathan he slides down kinds act up over time this school become automatic you would have to think about it who just boom self arrest he stops him keep on climbing first we practice a skill we make sure her practicing the right things right practice and is any good we practice the wrong things achieve that many feedback and we get feedback
from kind learning environments flick whitewater kayaking now it is true we were attacking you learn that you does own ways that are cold and wet and dark and loud and violent kind of scary and surprisingly absent of the oxygen that you're so custom your breathing and then provides clear an immediate feedback but you messed up and you probably do something for next time back interesting on
the other hand it's a little more devious read these anger snow crystals here they indicate that the slope could avalanche but just because the circus is our presence nampak doesn't mean that it will avalanche you can see where that's tricky because you can skip work dozens of times think you done everything right but actually had a series of close calls and don't learn until finally avalanches
in if you have learned the lesson that your likely in that avalanche the price for this lesson might be your life that's really harsh and in those cases experience education is not the way to go when you get feedback in other ways we talk to experts in the field we review the data we analyze accident reports I mean if you got from our partners I was
climbing this line recently of the rock me step off the overhanging rock and the spend a dagger vice not move from Iraq to the ice ducking Kentucky cycle that my partner who climbing ice for eighteen years like Hey what your thoughts it's like I have a manual on your own I've never seem to Lee silver than pictures but it looks rad eighteen years right experience is
not the same things expertise I'd also be remiss if I fail to mention the role of luck in all this fact I mean giving this talk is evidence of survivorship bias you know hearing his words in the people who got hurt border went went broke or died or their climbing skiing among guiding right dozens of risky there's an irreducible amount of uncertainty inherent in mount travel
as there is in all of life which except that but sometimes you do everything right and the outcome is still poor because risk involved see I thought of this climb and I cut a big chunk of ice with my face now if I screwed up my face deserves a look like that nineteen to accept those consequences right I need to humbly learn the lesson involved provide
everything right in my face still looks like that well that's remains safe risk sometimes you lose and you have to be careful city Droppin what are the consequences how likely are they to be from the practice do you have the skills where the rewards only you know the answer those questions but again it's really really straightforward without risk there is no reward but in this case
