Literature notes
Is it that exploration helps prevent black swans because when you're in exploitation you tend to get comfortable and specialize?
Why not do both?
If an agent isn’t acting randomly, it’s either gathering information about its surroundings (exploration) or extracting resources from a niche (exploitation).
Appetite for risk plays a big role here, because prospecting is unpredictable and drains resources, whereas mining is (relatively) stable and provides resources.
At some point, though, you probably decide to settle down (our culture even uses this term), which fits the standard settling pattern: loss of options, shifting to a longer-term outlook, and devoting more resources to your chosen niche (mate)