risk tolerance
The mantra uttered by investors and executives to cloak fear in numbers. It feigns boldness while actually serving as an excuse to avoid thinking. Charts and graphs rationalize it, but at heart it’s merely a projection of one’s own anxiety claiming, ‘This much is safe.’ Treated as an objective metric in boardrooms, it’s in fact a mirage born of sales pitches and analysts’ wishes. Every time risk tolerance is invoked, a veneer of credibility spreads—its true role, however, is a device for self-preservation.