The physicist David Deutsch defined the precautionary principle as a form of pessimism that “seeks to ward off disaster by avoiding everything not known to be safe.”
The opposite of the precautionary principle is something like epistemic optimism: We don’t know enough, and we should always try to learn more.
The dichotomy between a blue teamer needing more logs, aka more visibility to make a decision versus the idea that something hints at being bad, so take action against it…
When one is an internal team, the only company one learns and cares about is your own. Which means maybe you side with the precautionary and do a whole lot of Preperation work before ever getting that first potential incident. Or maybe it’s a build it because it’s already needed and potential incidents are coming in for review and action before all the logs are even being gathered.
It’s the same with People, especially in hiring – we can either find small details about someone that could mean they won’t work out. Or we can find glimpses of possible greatness. When it comes to hiring, I prefer to find the possible areas of greatness and hire those people. In the end, it may mean I get burnt once, twice, or more times – but giving someone that chance to excel, to maybe escape the level of work they have been stuck in.
I needed that chance,and am forever grateful that someone took it.
