Brain Lenses

Brain Lenses

Share this post

Brain Lenses
Brain Lenses
Hazard Rate

Hazard Rate

Colin Wright's avatar
Colin Wright
Nov 10, 2022
∙ Paid
1

Share this post

Brain Lenses
Brain Lenses
Hazard Rate
1
Share

In economics, the Hazard Rate is the rate of death for an object or entity at a given age.

So a person's statistical likelihood of dying will generally drop following infancy (there are quite a few things that can go wrong right after birth across much of the world), but it will then tick back up over the course of their lives as they engage in riskier behaviors, the biological effects of aging accrue in their bodies, and as they ultimately approach humanity's (current) lifespan ceiling.

This formula can also be applied to goods, like smartphones, which might be unlikely to die in their first year of operation, but then see an increase in hazard rate as it becomes statistically more likely that a phone's owner will drop it, causing severe damage, or that the device's hardware or software will suffer some kind of irreparable glitch.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Brain Lenses to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Colin Wright
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share