this is a fascinating piece.
"Ninety percent of human-avalanche encounters, Ryan said, are triggered by humans, making humans the primary avalanche problem." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/magazine/avalanche-school-heidi-julavits.html

"Then Ryan revealed a second twist: By entering the storefront two hours earlier, by taking an avalanche-safety course, we had statistically increased our chances of being killed in an avalanche."

"The traps that interested me most [...] were Familiarity (failing to remain vigilant when faced with the known), Social Facilitation (everybody’s doing it, so it must be OK) & Expert Halo (the experts must know what they’re doing, & so it’s safe to unquestioningly follow them)."

sound familiar???

"The broad solution, Ryan said, to avoiding all heuristic traps is group decision-making, constant communication and the regular practice of emotional vulnerability." Not, in any way, things that are valued in our societal leadership or mainstream stories #NarrativeDisorder

"All-female groups, Ryan told us before lunch, make better decisions in risky situations than all-male groups or mixed-gender groups."

"When asked why women became less smart in the company of men, Ryan speculated -" I'm going to stop you right there, Ryan.

"shame and denial inhibit the reporting of human-triggered avalanches, which subsequently reinforces a culture of silence and impedes the sharing and disseminating of instructive stories in which the main characters do not choose wisely."

----> "Here’s why all avalanche courses should include at least one novelist." <----

"I wondered why these case studies were called accidents. To call these deaths and burials accidents implicitly perpetuated the idea that the randomness of nature was the killer, not the shortsightedness, cowardice or hubris of people."

"Most accidents happen when the avalanche danger is “considerable.” (There r five danger ratings: low, moderate, considerable, high & extreme.) Oddly, when the avalanche danger is “high,” fewer people r killed, b/c people on high-danger days are certain about their uncertainty."

"The survivor of a 2013 avalanche in the Yukon, when asked about her group’s decision-making process, said: “For me, the word ‘considerable’ was not dangerous. I don’t know why. You just ‘consider’ it.”" *SCREAMS*

"He said, contemplatively, “I might have better taken into account people’s skill levels.”" COMEMIERDA

"Functional zero is zero, but — to the imagination, at least — it is also not zero, just like the fear of being buried alive is both 100 percent irrational and also not."