Wednesday Wisdom: Loss, Control, & Letting Go

January 3, 2024's Wisdom

Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I attempt to distill and share worldly advice for better living by presenting three quotes, three observations, and three questions.

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LOSS

🤨 Quote

“One of the most reliable findings in behavioral economics, loss aversion refers to the fact that people will fight much harder to avoid a loss than they would to achieve a gain of the same amount.”

-Robert H. Frank, Success and Luck

Observation 🧐

Loss is something that we continually are afraid of. The majority of us are always in pursuit of more, but seldom are we in pursuit of less.

The science writer Steven Johnson observed the following around loss aversion:

“Humans are wired to resist losses more than to seek gains. There seems to be something in our innate mental toolbox that stubbornly refuses to give up something we possess, even if it's in our long-term best interest to do so.”

This typically is because of a fear of never getting what we lost back. We associate a loss with pain, and a sense of gain with pleasure.

🤔 Question

If I am holding onto something out of a fear of loss, what am I not seeing that I can be losing by not letting this go?