I think you are correct here - I used to think they “had no imagination”, but now I am convinced that is not the case - here’s a guy who went to art college, but changed “careers” - He says at one point "I don’t bother with insurance - I’m not going to die doing this - I want to die in bed with my boots off "
From your spelling of “mum” - I think you are probably from the US - what do you think of his accent ? It is (or was) completely typical of the area and I personally love it - but many find it jarring !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTv1a_nACCs&list=PL3LctyQuyjl-Qdbb5G7hGTz8XXnI8i261
Now I was a self employed roofer for a few years and it is definitely true that you can become accustomed to heights and risk to an extent by practice and repetition, but to get to the stage of relaxed excellence which these people exhibit, I think there has to be more to it.
I watched a programme where they put some applicants through a training and assessment programme, the same as they did in WW2 days to train “undercover agents” to work behind enemy lines in France etc and it became aparentt that the characteristics they wanted were very specific an unusual - the ability to ignore or not feel “Fear” was one - much the same as the SAS (“Who dares wins”) desired profile.
There is a class of citizen (somewhere around 1-5% of the population who have “No fear” as one of their defining characteristics - they are called “psychopaths” and a great many reach positions of high power in industry and commerce.
Some take a different path
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4732402/Housemate-triple-killer-Joanna-Dennehy-s-hold-men.html
In this way they are much more “advanced” psychologically than the rest of us, since the “tear emotion” is just not genuinely relevant to real life nowadays and can be very counter productive (Fear of “pulling the trigger” for example) when “the crowd” are all running away from a declining price and are about to have their “stops” hit. The “news” is terrible and clearly the charging “price drop” (Read Lion in our forebears day) is attacking us and about to “eat us” - Now is probably the right time to break from the crowd and take a considered “Up-bet”.
Clearly, the pre-history response of “Running away” or the natural fear response of “Freezing” would have stood them in good stead in those days, but nowadays, the potential loss of a few quid against the potential to get a great position for an entry ?
We see too in trading some of the “Common sense” ideas are plain wrong “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” spring to mind. Behavioural Economics teaches that we will defend a “Loss” situation by taking far more “risk” that we aill take to achieve a profit. In reality - there is no difference betwee a loss and a profit from the financial point of view, yet we will take tiny profits (our “Bird in the hand” ) and many will “Fight to the death” so as NOT to accept a loss (Again we will Fight for our “bird in the hand” (Meal we have already killed - against one who wants to steal it from us !)
These actions are a well known recipe for disaster as traders and yet we continue to obey the emotions which are outdated by 20,000 years in most of us.
People like Guy Martin (from the TT vid) have been hospitalised many times as was Barry Sheen and Evil Kineval - Yet they persist in repeating the same behaviour. Another defining behaviour of psychpaths is the apparent lack of ability to learn from experience (most say) and many of the greatest traders (historically) went completely bust several times before they became successful. They just refused to learn that “trading was bad” and avoid doing it !
Criminal Pschopathy is generally accepted to folow te “3 legged stool” model where two of the legs are genetic and the third is caused by an abusive (deliberately or not) or confused upbringing.
[Note the woman who terrorises both inmates and staff in prison (link above) is said to have had an “Idyllic childhood” - something does not fit here ! - there is also a theory that they can feel the emotions if they wish, but can CHOOSE to switch them off and on ! ]
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychopath-Inside-Neuroscientists-Personal-Journey/dp/1617230154/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529840148&sr=8-1&keywords=james+fallon+psychopath+inside
I’m wondering whether those with the mutations but lacking the “upbringing” - actually feel Fear in the same way we are so familiar with ? The guy who wrote that book and put forward the theory in the first place was apparently one of those !
