Fault Tolerance

engineer's life decisions

A really bad path dependency for me is that I want a fault-tolerant solution ahead of time. I want a fully implemented solution with auto-deployable backup plans that are ingeniously and meticulously curated and automatically manage their risk.

This ranges from small life decisions, such as stock investment and pension funds, to bigger strategic choices, like startups and future life plans and goals. So, for example, if I invest in stock (as an example since it is the most straightforward), I maniacally implement auto-trade rules and algorithmic watchtowers. I calculate each and every expiry of options and calculate the cash flow of my investments. This is while being a good investor habit, somewhat tiring and stressful.

At the same time, however, I came to a revelation that this comes from my engineering background, which wants complete fault tolerance. Think of Netflix's Chaos Monkey. Chaos Monkey is a fault tolerance test tool at Netflix that randomly turns off the server to test its tolerance. Netflix's fault tolerance is revered like that at the company level, which makes such practice very native. It's undoubtedly a modern example of Si vis pacem, para bellum.

I was raised and educated to revere such practices. I was taught that technology should be praised and worshipped as temples, shrines, and fane, and an engineer's solemn duty is to deploy preemptive measures to a psychopathic level. And I thought that was the only way to protect what I value.

As I explore the realms of risk-taking, I now feel like safeguards are often ceilings. You need to take small risks, one by one, let them seep, and stimulate your impromptu skills. Those small risk-takings will eventually vaccinate you from fxxking up real bad.

Making a backup plan is, in a way, underestimating your future risk management. It seems okay to let things crash and burn as long as it is foreseeable. By the time you get there, you will be well past your age and have already figured it out.

This writing will probably suck because it was written completely by a human on June 23, 2024, only with a simple spellcheck software. No Gen-AI was used during the writing process.