What your choices do to the quality and quantity of your life...
I am in the process of marketing a new functional beverage that is a high touch supplement. The product will give you supplementation for baby boomers in a beverage platform versus pills. The benefits are increased uptake and therefore greater efficacy. But, ignore this. I am just giving a little background as to why I am looking at these issues.
We have landed on a name and tag line surrounding the idea that people are seeking greater quality and quantity in their lives. Meaning, a healthy, active, rich, long life.
One thought was that insurance companies use your data - blood pressure, hight, weight, demographic background, zip code and health habits to determine your average life span. They basically create a graph and plot your life along a curve. Your life is now that line. We think people want ways to live above that line. Meaning, live a life with greater quality and quantity than expected based on numbers.
Here is a really interesting article that explains the impact of really small choices. I thought it might resonate with some in this group as it did for me....
http://understandinguncertainty.org/microlives
Comments
It's tough to think in those terms, meaning numbers which are based in science, but don;t seem to have a practical impact on how we think or act. In my years as a physician, I struggled daily with trying to help people understand what the science of population-based statistics meant to them as an individual. Apparently, we;re just not wired to intuit what it means that, say, this pill will increase your chances of cancer by 1 in 1000 per year. No matter how I sliced it or diced it, I just got glazed looks. Then I realised, people don't care about what what happens in populations; they want to know what;s going to happen to *them*. Meaning, for any given individual, the odds are either 100% or 0% that they will get cancer - they will or they won't, and that's the filter our brains absorb this stuff thru.
I got the same internal reaction reading about "micromort" and "microlife". I reflected on the two recent sports-related crashes I've had, either of which could have left me dead or paralyzed or brain dead. But I came out (relatively) unscathed from each. I certainly don't decide whether or not to ski, or ride my bike, based on the risks involved. Obviously, many of those who, say, smoke, don't think that way either. I get enjoyment from bombing down slopes or riding hard/long on highways with cars, just as smokers get enjoyment from their habit. And hang the consequences.
Now, maybe there are some scientific types who will respond to numbers like these, but I bet they are a small minority of the population. Just cause you're smart doesn't mean you're going to run your life based on actuarial tables.