Lever now and risk manage later - No humor in that

A good comic always has a ring of truth. There is humor in pointing out the truth to those who may not see it. The phrasing could easily have been changed to lever now and manage risk later.  Of course, this is not the behavior of everyone, but often the approach to asset management is take on the risk and then have risk management kick-in if something goes bad. Make the trade and then think about risk. Buy now and panic if your thesis is wrong.

A stop-loss is an after-the-fact risk management approach. Position now, manage risk later. There may not be anything wrong with this approach. A stop-loss is accepting that something unexpected can happen. However, an exit plan is not the same as some measurement of what may change to convince yourself that the original trade idea is wrong. If these conditions change, I will change is a better dynamic than just a stop-loss.