This is really cool! Thank you for sharing. I think micromorts will significantly help my intuition.
At least with regards to my own notions of "badass," I think this is only sometimes true. I do not think it is considered badass to watch a horror film, yet there is substantial S1 perceived risk.
I love the Chinese saying!
And your point is interesting. I believe my desire to ride a motorcycle stems from the motorcycle being seen as a cultural symbol of badassity as opposed from the inherent danger of riding a motorcycle. And, while badassity may coincide with danger, the two need not be correlated.
For example, I view skydiving as a symbol of badassity, but skydiving in relation to driving an automobile (generally not very badass) is quite safe.
I wonder if I am unusual in this respect, and perhaps it is more common to be attracted to motorcycling precisely because of the danger.
Although, I haven't explicitly done test-first programming, it appears as though it could be a great way to remove the trepidation. I do, however, often work on problem sets for school which come with pre-written tests, and I find myself mildly anxious before I run those tests on my code. Perhaps, the problem here is that I have internalized that code is "done" when the last line is written, as opposed to the test-first paradigm where "done" necessitates passing all the tests.
How do you feel in that space between completing your last line of code and running your first test?
Noting: I feel trepidation towards testing my code. I believe this is because I suspect that my code has bugs and bugs are equated to debugging (i.e. work). Yet, once I get over my trepidation and test my code with all the supplied test cases, I become giddy and want to test everything. I believe this is because I feel that my code is free of bugs and every test is then a testament to what I've created. Has anyone else experienced something similar?
Yes! This is what I was gesturing towards. I agree with this.