Tag Archives: cost benefit

Risky Business: Part 2

June 14, 2010 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 4 Comments

Yesterday (Part 1), we discussed why we need risk assessment- and alluded to why we fail this process. We really do not understand risk, at all. The chance that a nuclear reactor will experience catastrophic failure in any given year is pretty low; but the probability of a nuclear accident happening anywhere is much higher. The same is true when one considers a terrorist attack or even possibility of another BP oil spill. And, the wild card in every calculation is human error (or stupidity).

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Risky Business: How we perceive risk- and how we must do MUCH better (part 1)

June 14, 2010 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 3 Comments

I said I was going to discuss risk last week; today seems like the perfect day to do so. Yesterday was the anniversary of the (almost) Iranian Revolution. The younger generation (about ½ of all Iranian citizens) were dismayed at the election “results” (not likely to have been as advertised), and for a few weeks, took to the streets and tried to change the way the country was governed. It failed (at least as of today). Most of the leaders understood there was risk to this position; I am not sure they understood that risk meant that their government would callously kill them. Likewise, the Tiananmen revolution in China- it’s not likely that these folks expected 3000 to be killed. Or, to date things back further, the students from 1968 did not believe that the Chicago police would “billy-club” and beat them. These are political- not technological- risks.

Continue reading Risky Business: How we perceive risk- and how we must do MUCH better (part 1) →