3min chapter

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160 – The Attention Economy

FAREWELL

CHAPTER

Is There a Cost Benefit to Running Outside?

Growth Equation podcast co-host says we're hypersensitive to threats in the world. We make decisions based on risk that we can see, not what we can't see, he says. The New York Times or Derek Thompson's advertising cheapens this entire conversation and makes it seem like you need Chanel perfume instead of a cold plunge mattress for sleep.

00:00
Speaker 1
I would almost only hear probably about things that happened in my local community. But now I interpret, oh, someone got stabbed in New York City as my environment is dangerous. And because we live in a very large world, someone is going to get stabbed, shot, stolen, abducted, etc. Unfortunately, you know, very frequently because of the size of the country. So it misaligns our kind of projection or prediction of how dangerous or threatening the world is. And I think with attention, economy, social media, etc. All that does is it simplifies it, meaning we're incredibly hypersensitive to threats. Yeah, and I think two things can be true at once. And I know that you agree, which is, yeah, like there can be increased risk to running outside. But there's also a lot of increased benefit to running outside. And then it becomes a cost benefit thing. I mean, you could get hit by a random lightning strike or a pebble from a car could shoot you and get you in the eye while you're running on the sidewalk. Now, depending on what area you live in, those things might be as likely is getting stabbed. They might be more likely. They might be less likely. And I'm not saying like to dismiss those, but I think to Steve's point, what happens is these risks get like the primacy that they take in our minds gets so inflated, but then we make decisions based on the risk that we can see, not on the risk that we can't see, which is time in nature is generally better than time staring at a wall on a treadmill. The other thing I'll add because we've really been talking a lot about like this negativity bias and the narrowing of our world is imagine if right now we just cut out to say, hey, listener, do you struggle with your sleep? Well, we've got the fix for you. For listeners of the Growth Equation podcast, use the code brad gets cold to take a cold plunge and XYZ plunge tube and then head over to XYZ Mattress company, where our mattresses are clinically proven to give you a better sleep. What does it do? It cheapens this entire conversation. Right? You would probably sit there and kind of laugh and be like, are you kidding? And I think that's the other thing that advertising does. So even if you're aware of all these biases and you stick to your guns, I think no one does this better than as recline over at the New York Times or Derek Thompson on the Ringer Podcast Network. And yeah, I still can't help but cringe and I know both these guys and I love them. I listen to their podcasts on these topics and then it cuts out to like, you know, this is like, do you want to smell like a woman? You need Chanel perfume. Or in Derek Thompson's case, like some cheese company that I seriously thought was at first the parody and it's like it cheapens the seriousness of what we're talking about here.

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