what is your limit for risk-taking?

There is a podcast called The Sharp End where folks tell their stories about backcountry accidents, near misses, and situations that grew out of hand. Episodes are usually good quality, frightening as hell, and fascinating in the forensics of when things go all wrong.
https://www.thesharpendpodcast.com

My perception after reading about many backcountry rescues (& fatalities) is that the commonest story is one of multiple small errors in judgment stacked one upon another until, compounded, they amount to a dire situation. Much less usual is one big catastrophic turn of events that was not possible to foresee or forestall.

For me, it’s “does this risky thing rely on my skills/coordination/strength/etc” vs luck

Eg I don’t drive because I don’t think I pay enough attention to my surroundings and have a poor reaction time. But I’d go tandem skydiving (maybe).

Also depends on my perception of the risk statistically - my perception is that sky diving is fairly safe but flying in tiny planes has a high crash rate. Seems like there’s a news report about a small plane crashing once a week but don’t remember the last time I heard about a sky diver dying. Hot air balloons I’m on the fence about.

I'll go out on an Irish summer in sandals and no socks so my feet freeze.sure socks would just get wet.
Bloomin danger freak innit.

i had a colleague who was a formation skydiver, at a national level from what i gather. most weekends he'd throw himself out a perfectly good plane several times. was interesting seeing the replies to his facebook post the first time his main chute got snarled up (basically it was like a club you joined)

i went on a hot air balloon ride with my dad and grandma for our birthdays (all in the same month) when i was 10 (dad was 40, grandma was 70) honestly wasn't scared at all -- none of us were -- it's not actually very scary tbh, there's no adrenaline involved. we went up in a blimp once too. both were quite placid experiences.

beyond that i will keep my risk-taking habits to myself

I have acrophobia so being miles up in the air for a long period of time and actually feeling the outdoor elements while I do it (as opposed to being in a plane) still makes me break into cold sweats.

But I'm less fearful than I used to be after many a rollercoaster