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Tretton comments on "Stupid" questions thread - Less Wrong Discussion
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I have decided to take small risks on a daily basis (for the danger/action feeling), but I have trouble finding specific examples. What are interesting small-scale risks to take? (give as many examples as possible)
Another transport one: if you regularly go to the same place, experiment with a different route each time.
Ain't most forms of that less dangerous (per mile) than driving? (Then again, certain people have miscalibrated aliefs about that.)
Apparently some study found that the difference between people with bad luck and those with good luck is that people with good luck take lots of low-downside risks.
Can't help with specific suggestions, but thinking about it in terms of the decision-theory of why it's a good idea can help to guide your search. But you're doing it for the action-feeling...
Climb a tree.
Use a randomizer to choose someone in your address book and call them immediately (don't give yourself enough time to talk yourself out of it). It is a rush thinking about what to say as the phone is ringing. You are risking your social status (by coming off wierd or awkward, in the case you don't have anything sensible to say) without really harming anyone. On the plus side, you may make a new ally or rekindle an old relationship.
Going for the feeling without the actual downside? Play video games MMPRPGs. Shoot zombies until they finally overwhelm you. Shoot cops in vice city until the army comes after you. Jump out of helicopters.
I really liked therufs suggestion list below. The downside, the thing you are risking in each of these, doesn't actually harm you, it makes you stronger.
Try some exposure therapy to whatever it is you're often afraid of. Can't think of what you're often afraid of? I'd be surprised if you're completely immune to every common phobia.
I actually have a book on exactly this subject: Absinthe and Flamethrowers. The author's aim is to show you ways to take real but controllable risks.
I can't vouch for its quality since I haven't read it yet, but it exists. And, y'know. Flamethowers.
When you go out to eat with friends, randomly choose who pays for the meal. In the long run this only increases the variance of your money. I think it's fun.
This is likely to increase the total bill, much like how splitting the check evenly instead of strictly paying for what you ordered increases the total bill.
Assign the probabilities in proportion to each person's fraction of the overall bill. Incentives are aligned.
I haven't observed this happening among my friends. Maybe if you only go out to dinner with homo economicus...
This is called the unscrupulous diner's dilemma, and experiments say that not only do people (strangers) respond to it like homo economicus, their utility functions seem to not even have terms for each other's welfare. Maybe you eat with people who are impression-optimizing (and mathy, so that they know the other person knows indulging is mean), and/or genuinely care about each other.
From where? I'd expect it to depend a lot on how customary it is to split bills in equal parts in their culture.
How often do you have dinner with strangers?
But it saves the time and the effort needed to compute each person's bill -- you just need one division rather than a shitload of additions.
This is actually something of an upside. If you can afford to eat out with your friends you can afford to eat a bit better and have more fun. Not caring about what your food costs makes ordering and eating more fun.
"If you can afford $X, you can afford $X+5" is a dangerous rule to live by, and terrible advice. Obscuring costs is not an upside unless you're very sure that your reaction to them was irrational to begin with.
Also, order your food and or drinks at random.
Note: don't do this if you have food allergies.
Day trading?