I love Mythbusters; and before every show there’s the obligatory warning, “Don’t try this at home. We’re what you call professionals”. Which is really disappointing since I now have no idea what to do with the 500 lbs of explosives, the crash test dummy, and the balistics gel sitting in my garage.

This morning Martin reminds me that I’m a bit of a professional myself. As mentioned in this post, I’m running Vista and an XP machine without any antivirus. And as kwismer pointed out in the comments, Vista isn’t completely immune.

I can only do this because I’m a highly educated user, only taking risks for myself, with a strong track record of never being infected. History, experience, and training allow me to take actions that are high risk to someone without my background. It’s the same as my rescue activities- the odds of me getting hurt while snowboarding some 300 lbs behemoth in a plastic sled down a black run are smaller than the odds of you blowing a knee on a blue run. Actually, the odds of me fracturing my shoulder while flying down a solo bump run are much higher than if I was doing the same run with a patient strapped in a rig behind me.

Know your own risks and make your own assessments; and if you don’t have the skills to even do that accurately, always err on the side of caution. And never place others at risk even if your personal risk is low.

Don’t be an idiot. I’m a professional.

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