[mulvya]

Oxford defines prudent as "sensible and careful when you make judgements and decisions; avoiding unnecessary risks"

How can it be sensible if one thinks it's 'highly unlikely'?

If one is very rich, then prepping may be financially affordable, but that doesn't make it cognitively rational.

[fighterpilot]

> How can it be sensible if one thinks it's 'highly unlikely'?

Hedging a highly unlikely situation can still be sensible. Those two things are definitely not mutually exclusive.

If all your net worth is tied up in your house, it's probably sensible and rational to get fire insurance on your house, even if it's highly unlikely that your house will burn down. This question has been studied extensively in utility theory.

[goatlover]

But should you get insurance in case a meteor hits your house? Fires happen often enough, but some events are low enough probability not to worry about. A house being destroyed by a meteor strike isn't worth spending money on.