followed. With an unfurling whoosh, Icarus was airborne. He was
actually flying! His body was weightless. He was free. He felt the
fresh salty sea air on his face, the rush of the wind in his ears.
Higher and higher, faster and faster he flew. Free of the ground
and free of the prison. All he could see was the pale blue sky and the
deep blue of the ocean and in the distance a small speck below him.
It was his father. Then he noticed a tiny feather drift past him and
float away; then another. One by one the feathers scattered, like
dandelion seeds in the wind. The blazing sun softened the beeswax
and the wings were falling apart. Before he knew it, his arms were
bare, and Icarus crashed into the sea.
The story of Icarus is a lesson in moderation: Don’t fly too
high and don’t fly too low, just keep to the middle. But can you really
blame Icarus?After all, he justescaped from an islandprison and was
flying for the first time. Moderation isn’t always the primary strategy
for sensation-seekers either. Many high sensation-seekers live their
lives in extremes and there are times when abandoning moderation
leads to wonderful experiences. But at other times, you end up
waxed and feathered, drowning in the sea.
Despite the extreme stories and cases, for most people,
sensation-seeking isn’t a problem at all. The vast majority of
sensation-seekers will tell you that sensation-seeking is a valuable
part of their life. Their thrill-seeking experiences make the world
seem bigger, closer, and more amazing. Being a sensation-seeker
can even be an important part of their work (as illustrated in the
last chapter).
However, some people with sensation-seeking personalities
struggle with the dark side of risk-taking. Sometimes sensation-
seeking can wreak havoc in the form of making the wrong decisions
for the sake of a thrill, or even falling into addictions and aggression.
In some cases, sensation-seekers don’t even know they are getting
into trouble until it’s too late. Interestingly, some of these problems
can be predicted early in a person’s life. Throughout my research
I came across examples of how sensation-seeking can lead to trouble
which led to a better understanding of how tempting Icarus with
a marshmallow might have predicted his plunge into the sea.Worth the Risk?
Wes, a 35-year-old marketing executive, pursues a lot of hobbies
and interests: mountain climbing, skydiving, mud runs, hiking. He136 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:10, subject to the Cambridge