If you were a grizzly bear you'd live wild in the woods. The exhilaration of seasons, fresh air, freedom. But you'd have to contend with all the usual threats: hunters, hunger, encroaching humans, other bears. If you were a teddy bear you'd have a pretty good chance of scoring a cozy home, and a loving child to keep you close forever. Or you might spend your life sitting in a warehouse in China. Or worse - discarded after years of friendship, lost at the bottom of a Goodwill bin.
Because being sentient, that would hurt.
It's a question of risk and reward, and I think it comes down to whether you prize security or independence more. I asked Terence one night over burgers and we fleshed out every hypothetical pro and con we could think of. (Louie and Silicon Valley are on break. We have a surplus of free time in the evenings.)
Anyway, I like to think it's a good sign that I'm firmly in Camp Grizzly - because I wasn't always.
