2 Responses to “Big Bets”

1. David Weisman, on February 9th, 2003 at 12:47 am Said:

   There are many interesting ideas there, but I can’t help thinking it depends on which bets you consider big bets and which you consider small bets. Some people might say that if you have several unconnected government programs something that causes one to go wrong would not hurt the others, so you would have several small bets instead of one big bet. Others would say that even if a bunch of businesses were big in absolute terms, they would each be a small unconnected part of the Gross National Product and a small bet on a national scale.

   I think it might help to be more specific about which risks we are concerned about so we can decide if we might really be putting all our eggs in one basket or not.

2. David Weinberger, on February 9th, 2003 at 10:20 am Said:

   Good point. The application of the principle is going to be as difficult as with any principle of similar generality. The discussion you’re calling for is exactly the discussion Jock’s piece intends to engender.

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