The risks of playing it safe

Lulu Cheng Meservey · 18 Oct 2022

Lulu Cheng Meservey did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Avoiding risk does not mean fewer mistakes, only different ones: mistakes of omission.

Their wordsThere’s a common belief that less risk equals less error. That’s wrong. When you avoid risks, you don’t make fewer mistakes — you make different mistakes.
Our reading
Great companies are built on maximizing upside, not minimizing downside.

Their wordsGreat companies don’t get built on minimizing downside, but on maximizing upside.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.