Tread carefully

Tread carefully

Today’s expression is to tread carefully. To tread carefully means to be very careful in what you do and say, so that you don’t make a big mistake. We usually say this when there’s a danger of being too bold, or of not being very careful; we say this when the stakes are high and there’s a possibility of making a big mistake.

In today’s lesson about the American election, I said that the Democrats have two competing priorities inside their own party: the more left-wing base of younger voters in big cities will want to see fast movement on progressive policies, but many representatives in moderate districts want to tread carefully. They know their voters aren’t keen on some of the more progressive policies. They want to tread carefully. They don’t want to charge into 2021 with a big, bold agenda that’s too far outside the mainstream. If they do, as a party, then they risk losing seats in more moderate districts. They want to tread carefully; they want to act carefully because of the risk of making a mistake.

I mentioned in a previous lesson that I think Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms have to tread carefully when considering what content to pull down. There’s a lot of inflammatory and untrue content, but the platforms don’t want to put themselves in the position of being the arbiters of truth in every discussion. That would not end well. Therefore, they need to tread carefully and take down only the most inflammatory posts.

Some of you are individual investors. You buy individual stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. If you’re considering investing in a fast-growing young, popular company, you should tread carefully. I’m not saying those are all bad ideas, but you should be careful before getting swept up in the hype of a young and innovative company. Many companies that see their values rise dramatically in the early days are not able to sustain that high valuation. Investors who tread carefully when Uber and Lyft went public were rewarded for their caution, as both those companies are worth less than when their shares were first floated on the stock market. Lyft is worth much less. Before WeWork could go public, investors were treading carefully: they didn’t think WeWork was worth nearly as much as the company said it was worth, and those investors proved to be right. It’s a good thing enough people tread carefully with WeWork.

I’m not saying popular new companies are never a good investment; they often are. But it is important to tread carefully and not get swept up in all the excitement when making personal investments.

It’s important to tread carefully in interpersonal matters. If there’s a conflict in your family, you don’t want to offend anyone too deeply: you have to live with these people for a long time! Better to tread carefully, choose your words carefully, try to resolve the conflict without anyone’s feelings being too hurt. You can still make your voice heard, but choose your words carefully. Tread carefully: you don’t want to say something you’ll regret later.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote of the week is a good summary of the presidential race. It’s by the journalist Michael Grunwald and it’s about the differences between Trump and Biden. Before I read you the quote, I’ll tell you two things. A “die-hard fan” is a fan that’s very enthusiastic. And an “incumbent” is a person who currently holds an office. So here’s the quote: “Biden had no army of die-hard fans, and no talent for monopolizing the nation’s attention. But he had a secret weapon: the unpopularity of the incumbent.” Indeed—Biden’s campaign was about presenting the former vice president as the polar opposite of the sitting president. And it worked.

See you next time!

And that brings us to the end of our lesson today. Thanks for sticking with us until the end and congratulations if you followed it all. I purposely wrote this one to be a little more difficult than normal, so take your time studying the transcript at PlainEnglish.com/312 if you need to. I know many of you have been following the news in your own countries, so I hope you learned a bit about the election and learned a bit of English, too. And we’ll explore a few more topics related to the election outcome in the coming weeks.

But first on Thursday: the future of car buying. Startups around the world are trying to revolutionize one of the most miserable consumer experiences. We’ll talk about what they want to change in the next lesson. See you then!