And here is great contradiction in this whole essay. You can't "safely" take a lot of chances and not lose big, when in most cases to have big wins, one has to do unsafe things...

This is also why folks who have a safety net (in terms of family wealth, etc) tend to do better as entrepreneurs. Not sure this essay is helpful.

This appears to be a blog post about risk tolerance - which of course changes dramatically depending on lots of factors. If I fall as a middle-aged person, I'm much more likely to cause permanent, irreparable harm to myself - which, maybe not worth the rewards.

For most of us, taking calculated risks is better than simply taking more risks.

And the risk calculation changes based on your personal circumstances: physically falling has a greater impact on an old person than a young person, making a financial mistake has a greater impact on someone who has no savings than someone who is wealthy, etc.

So "let yourself fall down more" isn't really one size fits all advice.

Every time you use a question mark in place of a comma? A kitten dies.

Some comments are literal: "but I actually won't be able to get up again" and that's fair.

I would say a more complete version is: "take risks that won't end you and learn from the feedback."

> Falling doesn't have to be dangerous. You can fall a lot without getting hurt, if you learn to fall safely. With inline skating, you have protective gear (helmet, knee/elbow pads, wrist guards) which protect you, and you have techniques for falling which let you use this gear to its fullest potential.

Is that actually true? Is it possible with enough protective gear, that falling can be safe, even for older people? Doesn't your own body weight come into the picture, despite helmets and knee pads? (Genuinely curious!)

Virtually all legal systems make a clear distinction between "children" and "adults" precisely because of these sorts of external and embodied judgment factors.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/77731599?title=0&byline=0&por...

“Just” do it safely. If it’s safe, you are not really taking chances.

I slapped on all the padding I could and it took me nearly a year to get my bodyweight outside of my feet and really carve at high speed. Why? Because my flexibility, strength and muscle activation all had weird gaps.

I ended up getting a slackboard as well about a year in.

I am basically impossible to knock over now, I can wear sperrys on ice, my legs and core are incredibly strong in a way lifting heavy never accomplished, I no longer have weird little muscle pains, all the muscles are strong.

When cycling I used to have occasional knee pain in my left exterior of my knee. No longer.

I've found 3 fast stretches to do after... I mean, rollerblading is basically yoga (which I find boring) at 15mph with pebbles and no ability to bail, it's fucking awesome and pretty damn hard.

I wear all the pads and it's glorious, I'm ~40 and I haven't felt this athletic since my late 20s.

I was getting sore before I started, that creeping old man shit, now I skate between 3 and 30 miles a week and its great. I skiied 3 days straight at 11k ft elevation and had no muscle soreness and no multi day fade, it was unreal.