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Sounds like this could be survivorship bias, in a very literal sense.

Could be. But also talking about all these other hypothetical adventurous people who are now broke and starving feed into our fears. I wonder if it just feels right to assume most people regret such decision because it matches what we worry about.

Do you have any data to back up that sentiment?

No. I'm not aware of anyone doing a randomized controlled trial on going adventuring. I'm just pointing out that people who died naturally won't be able to tell their stories, so we're disproportionately likely to hear from the ones for whom it worked out ok.

For one person choosing adventure there must be at least ten watching him/her closely succeed/fail so in our current superconnected world I would assume not so happy stories are still preserved somewhere.

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