HK, one or my dearest friends and I have gone back and forth on this topic over the years. To sum up, she's a dabbler and I'm a doer. She sits on the sidelines worrying and deliberating. I jump in with both feet and change course often. It's a feature of our differences in optimism and risk appetite.
I'll be honest: I think Sylvia's piece needlessly dwells on opportunity cost at the expense of opportunity gained. If I may, I'd like to share with you my self-talk in this area, because I struggle with it too.
As a polymath, it's easy to dismiss inaction on the grounds of great potential: "I could be X, Y, or Z... if only ." But really, true potential isn't founded on mentally masturbatory couterfactuals, it's based on some function of action and ability plus a random variable.
I don't plan on ever growing up, having a fixed career path, or charting the course of my life. I'm not an unconstrained optimization problem. A constrained something amounts to much more than unconstrained zero. I do plan on following my heart, failing miserably at some things, succeeding wildly at others, and having a hell of a good time along the way.
So while Sylvia laments her lost figs, I've hired a crew to collect those which are still on her tree and bake me figgy pudding.
Great topic.
