Stirling Moss passes

Who do you think you are?

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Juan: Ah, Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss. Our heroes in the 1950s. Never saw them but read their books.

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Jean-Étienne: And yet our careers never followed theirs. You became a professor, I became a doctor.

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Juan: Did anything transfer from their lives to yours?

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Jean-Étienne: Not really. I saw too many traffic accident victims in ER I guess. So I chose safety over risk.

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Juan: And I was cast as a commentator. I realized I could never perform something so stressful at what they called ten-tenths.

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Voice-over

The danger, the glory. Akin to gladiators racing chariots in Rome. Entering our 20s, our dreams shrank from hero-size to life-size. Regrets at not living life in the fast lane? Hmm. Becoming a racing driver, one’s life could have been over at 29 like Hawthorn and dozens of others, or one could have lasted until 90, like Moss. There’s no telling.

...

Risk management traveling in a time of virus

...through a mask darkly…

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Kleinman: In viral times like these, plans are useless but planning is essential.

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Drusilla: (wearing a black mask): So you planned?

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Kleinman: Plan A, B AND C.

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Drusilla: Which were?

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Kleinman: Plan A was to go to the airport and buy a ticket on the last flight. B was to use an existing ticket for the next day claiming to be an essential service person for that restricted flight. C was to stay put in Tokyo.

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Drusilla: So you went to the airport. Didn’t that have a degree of risk?

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Kleinman: There were three masked people on the 45 seater bus to Narita. Negligible risk. The airport was almost deserted because of all the cancelled flights. The flight itself had only 25 masked people on a 300 seater Airbus. OK, shall we say 10% risk? And at the airport on landing, masked biosecurity and police outnumbered arrivals Negligible risk again.

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Voice-over

Risk management pack

Travelling in viral times hinges on risk management odds and preparation. Mask, ethyl alcohol spray for surfaces, sanitizer, stay a couple of meters from others. A 10% risk? Then self-isolation. That restricts it to negligible risk. Plan C, staying in a densely populated Tokyo reliant on public transport. Hmm. What if the infection rate soars? Risk is then less easily managed.

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Risk and reward in motorcycling

A data point…

Lawrence: You’re giving up motorcycling?

Ali: For pleasure, yes. On a regular basis, yes. If there’s no other way, perhaps I’ll use two wheels. Or a horse.

Lawrence: What prompted this? An epiphany or an accident?

Ali: Statistics. Motorcycle riders are 35 times more likely to die in an accident than a car driver.

Lawrence: Ah, statistics, the modern superstition. Can’t argue with death as an ultimate cost, I suppose. Or the pain of injury. Seems risk far outweighs the reward. 

Victim of the risk averse

Ali: So after 23 years, green machine goes to the scrapyard. Count myself lucky I’m still alive and unscathed.

Lawrence: Sounds like you are trying to wrest some control back into your life.

Ali: I did recently get more interested in risk management, yes.

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Voice-over

The biggest problem for a motorcyclist is that he or she is vulnerable to the mistakes other drivers make. Perhaps motorcyclists favor freedom yet are fatalistic? Motorists surely trade feelings of freedom for a sense of greater control.

But avoiding flaunting risk behavior, and having a hyperreflective self-disciplinary attitude, must help lower the risk for the alert and cautious rider.

And DataDan, in an enlightened assessment of risk, has this to say: Motorcycling attracts risk seekers, but it rewards the more risk averse.

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Hedonistic dissonance

TinTin analyzes Haddock as a hedonistic dissonant…
TinTin: Let me get this straight. You were at Stabas at three, checking emails. Your flight was at nine. How could anyone –
Haddock: Miss the flight? It happens.
TinTin: But this is the third time in as many years.
Haddock: Well. There have been - um - mitigating circumstances.
TinTin: Is it something to do with not wanting to waste a minute? Catching the latest possible train to the airport?
Haddock: I - I don’t have a gold card to get into a lounge.
TinTin: Because you always take cheap flights. False economies. And another thing. This being the last one to board before the doors close. Hedonistic dissonance, wouldn't you say?
Haddock: Excuse me?
TinTin: The risk taker who deliberately acts to bring about a negative result.
Haddock: Not deliberate. Anyway, I can catch tomorrow’s flight.
TinTin: You’re too old to be always sailing so close to the wind.

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Voice-over
TinTin is trying to make a point, but isn't quite able to throw Haddock out of the ring who is in vehement denial. However, the jury awards TinTin the bout.
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