Being risk adverse

It's easy to become "risk adverse" since everywhere you look there are risks. The challenge of course is to find the risks that are worth taking. Or, is that just another strategy of the risk adverse? Hmmm. If you want to have students take risks I think you have to model risk taking. Do something that you are afraid to do and then reflect on the risk it took to do that thing.

A simple example is to write something off the top of your head and post it on a blog knowing full well that it might not be fully formed, it might have typos, or it might just sound trite or sentimental. I tell students that they need to be aware of their audience but is that an impediment to writing or at least first draft writing? For most of us we need to merely get out the words and then try to find how it meets the rhetorical situation after.

Low morale is the sign of the risk adverse. They have drawn into themselves and do not want to show a vulnerable side. Howard talked about this sort of person in the VPIT interview yesterday. It struck a cord with me.