Risk management

 I've been working with a research project involving neurogaming. It improving the minds of  people who start to show memory loss or have mental illnesses such as autism through mirror neurons and simulation. This project differs from competitors because does more immersive experiences such as Playstation or Gamecube. In order for a person to truly exercise they need to be caught up in the passion of the event and forget that they are exercising. It's like the book "See Spot Run" vs "Jurassic Park". You can base a movie on Jurassic Park but I think I'd save my money on the spot video. Athletes can get caught up in a sport such as tennis and forget they are working out. And it will be freely available online with support from advertising dollars. I think that the people who could benefit from this the most, the people with early signs of memory loss and mentally illness, are the ones who cost is a barrier to using other platforms. We also sell the anonymous research to aid in the development of other benefits and services. This is similar to Fred Rodger's congressional plea that children can be confused by "bombardment" and the need to do what is not natural such as bopping each other over the head. What is more natural is discussing what happens when they get a hair cut.

One such element that this project works on is risk. Every job encounters risks, from economics, medicine, and information technology. Closer to home, in order to be independent, one has to keep up with personal finances. I recently read Risk Savvy, by Gerd Gigerenzer who talks about how people are needlessly afraid of things that statistically are not probable. An example of a possible risk is radiation. People associate radiation with cancer, yet overseas people use irradiation, a process of stripping electrons from food in order to preserve it.

Problematic reason
1) Often people have a gut feeling and then come up with reasons why the feeling is correct.
2) Defensive thinking. Preparing for the worst case scenario leads efforts to protect our professional selves resulting in humans causing other problems by over treatment. Because of lawsuits doctors spend a huge amount of personal assets in liability malpractice insurance. While humans make mistakes, this adds to the costs of patients and can deter them from seeing a doctor because they cannot afford to do so. Some mistakes can be good. Larry Page is said to thank a business analyst who made an error because it was a good teaching tool.

On the other side Americans spend $30 billion at casinos, Greece's economy needed to be propped up because they cannot see clearly what is happening.

Some Good thinking
1. Be satisfied with things that are simple. In search of one's greed and ego, one can make their situation worse.
2) Imitate a peer, do what works for them
3) Seek advice from researchers
4) While in certain circumstances it is advisable to stick with what works, one also learns through errors and doing things differently.

I also read Dataclysm by Christian Rudder. It introduced the need to "fit in" is a powerful motivator. It talks about how in order to remain memorable it is necessary to capitalize on distinctive. Should a person try to fit in they will not be memorable. Men and women have a different way of viewing each other. Typically women need smaller things to feel that they are fortunate while men need bigger ticket items such as cars, TVs, and computers. It is more common for men to marry a slightly older woman because they value advice and feel as though they are more empathetic.

Things the games can teach
1) Statistics
2) Psychology of risks