My comfortable failure rate in work is about 75%, which is to say that at least 25% of my work has to be productive enough to make up for that amount of failure. The definition of a hard project is where the 25%-win isn't sufficient to pay off the 75%-lose rate, and of course, one then has to adjust.
For cold sales, of course there isn't a great deal of control one has, so I am comfier with higher rates of failure. For things like swipey dating apps, a common swipe conversion rate for guys is 0.3% or 1:300, and this is just conversion to the next hurdle, not final conversion!
For technical work, it's a matter of "is this something I know how to do/fix, or not". When I'm working by myself, for months and years on end, it is common to be sad or depressed ( within completely manageable levels ) for long periods, as there are no options to acquire support.
I have enjoyed my time on earth, involved in work at various levels of risk. I feel rewarded just to have these rare opportunities, which others don't seem to have or which they cannot tolerate.
The EUBI interstate fabric is quite interesting. It is remarkably absent from popular discourse. I look forward to a time when its constitutional basis can be openly debated without people feeling angsty about it. This is a significant fraction of my public work in Malaysian studies these days. Just talking about it.
