The non-binariness of things seems to me to be a fundamental tenet of the post-rationality thing (ribbonfarm is part of post-rationality). In particular, Chapman writes extensively on the idea that all categories are nebulous and structured.
I also think there are options to control your risk factor, depending on the field. You can found a startup, you can be the first startup employee, you can join an established startup, you can join a publicly traded corporation, you can get a job in the permanent bureaucracy. Almost every spot on the work risk-stability spectrum is available.
Perhaps the real question is why some particular fields or endeavors lend themselves to seemingly continuous risk functions. All of Viliam’s categories are purely social structures, where other people are categorizing you. So perhaps it’s not about the risk inherent in an activity but being labeled that fits his intuition. People might label you a drug user if you smoke marijuana in their map, but in the territory the continuum of “having used marijuana once” to “uses heroin daily” is not only continuous but many-dimensioned.
The non-binariness of things seems to me to be a fundamental tenet of the post-rationality thing (ribbonfarm is part of post-rationality). In particular, Chapman writes extensively on the idea that all categories are nebulous and structured.
I also think there are options to control your risk factor, depending on the field. You can found a startup, you can be the first startup employee, you can join an established startup, you can join a publicly traded corporation, you can get a job in the permanent bureaucracy. Almost every spot on the work risk-stability spectrum is available.
Perhaps the real question is why some particular fields or endeavors lend themselves to seemingly continuous risk functions. All of Viliam’s categories are purely social structures, where other people are categorizing you. So perhaps it’s not about the risk inherent in an activity but being labeled that fits his intuition. People might label you a drug user if you smoke marijuana in their map, but in the territory the continuum of “having used marijuana once” to “uses heroin daily” is not only continuous but many-dimensioned.