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Reinforcement and Risk

It is common knowledge that college, and especially Princeton, is not a very accurate depiction of the real world. In particular, the real world differs significantly in regard to the people who surround us daily, the expectations for our work, and the leisure activities we participate in. But there’s one fundamental difference between Princeton and the real world that I’d like to point out, a particular mindset difference that affects all other parts of our lives: our risk-reward perspective.

I may be generalizing somewhat here, but I’d argue that Princeton people tend to be risk-averse. We got into college because we did all the “right” things: We won science fairs, fundraised for non-profit organizations, led student groups, and more. We might have found motivation to be involved in these activities because of the positive reinforcement that came with them, whether it was trophies, recognition, or feeling like we made a difference to people around us. Subtly though, many of us were learning to become risk-averse people. We learned that if we followed the tried and true methods of getting into college, we would maximize the probability of acceptance. Ultimately, doing the “right” things could get us to the top.

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On campus, however, life isn’t as easy. Many student groups are competitive, and as freshmen we might have felt like failures after being rejected by the third dance company we tried out for. As students, we’re constantly striving to barely meet deadlines rather than being excited about our next assignment. There certainly exist people who are excited by all that the University has to offer, but it’s likely more common that we will find it difficult to feel excitement when in the back of our minds we know that we’ll probably end up feeling exhausted tomorrow after pulling an all-nighter on this assignment and that we have three more lined up for the next few days. Life here tends to provide a lot of negative reinforcement; we fear the threat of failure when we don’t get things done, but we see less the rewards of success when we do. Surely our professors aren’t going to say to us in class tomorrow, “Good job on this sloppily written memo!”

Being risk-averse is extremely destabilizing when there is so much inherent risk involved in day-to-day life. You’d think most of us would have realized that the cycle of negative reinforcement coupled with high risk was unhealthy and would found a way to cope with it, either by finding positive reinforcement within our communities and ourselves or by tuning out the risk. But many of us remain stubbornly scared of doing things wrong, still frantically panicking about jobs and going for the “prestigious” ones like consulting because those are the most logical choices in our risk-averse understanding of life. Moreover, we become even more risk-averse in the cycle of negative reinforcement, in an effort to maintain the little we have.

What we might not realize while we’re so frantically trying to do things right is that most of the real world isn’t like Princeton. In actuality, one day we’ll have to confront the fact that in the real world, there’s no clearly defined path to success or failure. Some of the most common career advice we get from people include “Do what you’re passionate about,” and “Don’t be afraid to take risks.” It almost seems like the “real world” actually rewards risk-taking, and for the first time in our lives, we’re clueless about what to do because for so long our world rewarded risk aversion.

But here’s the interesting thing: If the world really rewards risk-taking, that must mean that either the world isn’t full of negative reinforcement, or the truly successful people tune it out by creating their own positive reinforcement. Either way, it’s positive reinforcement that enables change — it motivates us to do things because we see the rewards they produce. In high school, it motivated many of us to become risk-averse. But luckily, it can also motivate us to become more risk-tolerant. In the long run, it’s positive reinforcement, not risk-taking or risk-avoiding, that wins.

So, to my fellow seniors who are frantically job-searching after having missed the deadlines or gotten rejected from consulting jobs, don’t fear — the world is in many ways a much friendlier place than Princeton, and you’ll make it somehow. (But it’s okay to fail, because failure’s never the end of the story.) And to all my fellow students on the struggle bus, I hope that if you haven’t done so yet, you’ll find some way to counter the negative downward-spiraling effects of being surrounded by seemingly endless obligations and deadlines at Princeton, and keep in mind that it’s never too early to start taking risks. Go study abroad if you want. Audition for that a capella group again. Learn to congratulate yourself for trying, and to see the process of trying, learning, possibly failing, and retrying as an end in itself — because that’s what real life is.

Annie Lu is a computer science major from Brandon, Miss. She can be reached at daol@princeton.edu.

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