It's taken a few months, but I think I've almost chosen our next car.

I've weighed up new versus second-hand, assess the depreciation rates, and spoken to eight insurance providers.

I'll be ready to enter phase two of selection over the next few weeks.

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I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

Because the subject of my writing is human nature, I'm always looking for patterns and the ways we think and act.

One thing that I notice again and again is that many dangers don't seem dangerous.

Drinking sugary beverages, not wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle,

texting while walking or even worse while driving,

setting your headphones to a high volume, skipping your blood pressure medication,

not bothering with sunscreen, when habits or activities are part of our ordinary lives, they feel safe.

I came across a striking example of this phenomenon in the book Life Under Cover, Coming of Age in the CIA by former officer Amarillo Fox.

She's describing her experience of working undercover for the CIA,

and she comments about their approach to riding in cars.

It used to be standard operating procedure not to wear seat belts in hostile environments

just in case an officer needed to bail during an ambush.

Then the statisticians pointed out that we were losing more

operatives to car accidents than terrorist attacks,

and we went back to click it or ticket.

...