Optionality is for Innumerate Cowards

What’s wrong with optionality? There are only two problems I see. Just two minor issues, really:1. It’s a bad deal financially.2. It’s utterly cowardly.

No wonder people hunker down and avoid committing. The macro risk is gone; nobody is seriously worried about global nuclear conflagration. [1] We’re worried about comparatively micro risks, though: financial instability; the grinding risk of having more debt and fewer assets than the previous generations; the fear of relentless social atomization —... See more

Many otherwise smart and well-adjusted people have talked themselves into being the Ebenezer Scrooge of optionality, always hoarding the ability to do something later, never actually doing anything when “later” arrives, and giving up a lot in the process.