That&#x27;s psychotic.<p>I don&#x27;t rope rescue, but I sure do rock climb. You can rock climb with ropes or without. Ropes = a large safety margin, and the majority of people who climb, utilize them, as part of their safety system. Unless you&#x27;re pushing your own grade level, the actual safety system isn&#x27;t actuated - you&#x27;re just using it &quot;just in case&quot; (like, &quot;just in case you fall from a cliff, 500 feet up - gee it&#x27;s nice I&#x27;m tied to something).<p>There are also those who climb without ropes. Perhaps you&#x27;ve heard of some of them [0], and most likely, because they actually climb without a rope. High Risk. Your idea of startups, let&#x27;s say.<p>But that&#x27;s just what the public sees. The free soloist has to be absolutely comfortable to go without the safety margin of a rope. Because of that, the majority of their climbing is done, still with a rope. When they go ropeless, the climbs they do are much, much easier. Yes, the risk is there, but also there is the understanding, clearly, what the risk is really about.<p>The death rate of climbers that are unwilling to <i>ever</i> use a rope, because they find that high risk = high reward would be close to 100%. But those who do survive are not going to be doing too well - they&#x27;re never going to progress.<p>So, perhaps startups have this illusion of high risk, but maybe also they&#x27;re also kidding themselves. They&#x27;re burning through their lives, and offloading the real risk onto their safety systems - whoever is putting up the money. And they can do that (the investors), as they&#x27;ve diversified their portfolio enough that risk is spread around.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ</a>