What Are We Actually Afraid Of?
Wed Feb 04 2026
Millions installed OpenClaw without reading the manual. Now we're debating AI regulation. Before that, we demanded privacy laws while posting our lives on Facebook. We add compliance checkboxes without understanding the legal implications. We subscribe to Cloudflare Pro and call it security.
The pattern is obvious: We act first, then rationalize our risk posture afterward.
This isn't about AI. It's not about Europe versus America. It's not even about risk-averse versus risk-hungry.
It's about something more uncomfortable: Most people don't actually know whether they're taking risks or avoiding them. They just know how to justify whatever they already did.
In this episode, we examine the gap between the risks we claim to manage and the ones we're actually taking. Because if you don't know what you're afraid of, you can't possibly know if you're being cautious or just performing caution.
The question isn't whether to take risks or avoid them. The question is whether you're honest about which risks you're already taking.
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Millions installed OpenClaw without reading the manual. Now we're debating AI regulation. Before that, we demanded privacy laws while posting our lives on Facebook. We add compliance checkboxes without understanding the legal implications. We subscribe to Cloudflare Pro and call it security. The pattern is obvious: We act first, then rationalize our risk posture afterward. This isn't about AI. It's not about Europe versus America. It's not even about risk-averse versus risk-hungry. It's about something more uncomfortable: Most people don't actually know whether they're taking risks or avoiding them. They just know how to justify whatever they already did. In this episode, we examine the gap between the risks we claim to manage and the ones we're actually taking. Because if you don't know what you're afraid of, you can't possibly know if you're being cautious or just performing caution. The question isn't whether to take risks or avoid them. The question is whether you're honest about which risks you're already taking.