This is why I said "average" venture-backed founder. You may have tons of assets such that losing/gaining 10% is not a big deal, or you may be naturally less risk-averse than the average person.
Some level of risk-aversion is rational, and it's not obvious to me if people are naturally over or below that level. it's also not obvious to me at all that people on LW would have unnaturally low risk-aversion.
Ok, I now think it's possible that you were right about the "average" founder, but for a different reason--it only depends on what assumptions we make about the distribution of rationality within the set of all founders. I'm not really interested in that right now.
However, I am assuming that the audience of LW is MORE rational than average. They should be LESS risk averse, because "A risk averse agent can not be rational" (source: http://lesswrong.com/lw/9oe/risk_aversion_vs_concave_utility_function/ )
Thus, I believe that it is somewh...
N.B.: This discussion isn't up for mainstream article status, as far as I'm concerned (unless someone else wants to take it and run with it). I just didn't know how else to direct an important question to the LW community in general.
I'm currently a first-year university student in Vancouver, Canada, attending UBC. I have a trust fund and otherwise I will not need to worry about paying for my undergraduate degree. I am open to the idea of going to grad school. So, I have the luxury to take my time in my studies and there are lots of options I can choose from. Majors I'm considering are Cognitive Systems, Economics (and philosophy or math or stats), English, Philosophy and History of Science, Mathematical Sciences/CompSci, or Psychology. I'm open to other options. So, have at it with your suggestions.
Specific Questions:
Should I care more about making money or doing something that I have a "passion" for?
How will this allow me to maximize my production of utilons?
What else should I keep in mind?