Living for the 1%

I find myself saying that a lot lately: living for the 1%. I use this phrase in conversations, discussions in class, and most prevalently in my decision-making processes. Even though I say it so often, I wanted to use this post to clarify for myself what it means to me. 

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There are some people in this world whom we’re bound to dislike, whether it be due to the way they talk, the way they think, or just how they present themselves in public. Even when I find myself in classes or just walking along the paths of campus, I endeavor to enter every conversation judgment free. I’ve found this practice has allowed me to capture different parts of everyone and compartmentalize these traits into someone whom I call myself. 

There’s one particularly interesting person in my grade from whom I learned this phrase that I find myself repeating. He has surface-level knowledgable on an expansive array of topics and is one of the most opinionated people I’ve met. One of his mantras is living with some risk for the greater majority of the times when things actually work out okay. 

After lunch, I was sitting in Commons finishing up some work before my next class. Suddenly, I realized that I’d forgotten to bring a sheet of paper that my teacher had handed out the day before. He usually doesn’t refer to handouts from previous classes, but in the moment, a sudden fear that he would ask we take it out became the impetus for my plan to take an 8-minute walk back to my dorm to get it. Only a few minutes remained before the class would begin, so I told my friend that I needed to run back to my dorm to get the sheet. He replied matter of factly: Do you really think he’s gonna check it? Like he never does. I said it was a possibility, and I wouldn’t want to be called out on that. He promptly replied that it was better to come to class without a paper that would most likely not be used than to come to class late with a paper that had that 1% chance of being referred to. I thought about it for a moment and could see his point. Am I living life for the 1%?

It reminded me of a topic we studied in my Proof and Persuasion class about framed risk. The example I remember most vividly is about a car accident. There was a scenario where a person dies in a car because they wore the seatbelt. This seems like an unlikely and merely unfortunate situation since seatbelts are designed to ensure safety. However, the public overreacts to the incident and deems seatbelts as inherently dangerous. This is what I consider to be living for the 1% chance, as people have changed their perceptions on something that proves effective the majority of the time. 

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I suppose what I’m learning is to take some more risks with life and to minimize inevitable outcomes of fighting for the slim chances that something might happen. If I’d gone back to get that handout from the previous class, I would have sacrificed my timeliness to class to get a sheet that we likely would not use. If people stopped wearing seatbelts, they would save themselves from the 1% chance that they die from wearing a seatbelt but escalate the probability of death from an accident in general. 

I guess what I’m really weighing are priorities and risk. I’m figuring out the value of doing something in the grand scheme of things and weighing the benefits against the inherent negative outcomes. This is becoming increasingly important in my high school career, as I’m finding I have less time to make up for these minor mistakes (forgetting a sheet of paper, forgetting to take reading notes etc.). This can signal one of two things, either I walk into class slightly less prepared but pull through just this once or create a new fault that cannot be excused.