Unrealistic Fears

When making a move to a new authoring tool or content management system, one of the biggest obstacles to success is the unrealistic fear of change experienced by those being asked to work differently. It’s a human problem that stems partially from our inability to properly calculate the odds that something we fear might happen. Take for instance our inability as a species to understand the odds of dying in a car crash compared to the odds of dying in a roller coaster accident (40,000:1). Annual risk of dying in a commercial airplane crash? One in a million. Percentage of deaths attributed to air pollution worldwide? Forty percent. Average number of people killed per year by sharks? Six. Average number of Americans that die each year from influenza? 36,000.

And yet, we’re more afraid of sharks than lighting (lighting kills 4,000 people for every one person killed by a shark), and more afraid of roller coasters than automobiles. What we need are some realistic expectations to help folks understand how unrealistic fears can hamper success. (Source: Popular Science)