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Safety First


I’m sure you’ve heard the slogan “safety first”. It is a statement of values for an organization, but let’s think about how to define what it should mean explicitly. H…

A tech company is a safety first company if any engineer has the ability to extend a project deadline, provided that the engineer judges in the moment that they need additional time in order to accomplish the work more safely (e.g., by following an onerous procedure for making a change, or doing additional validation work that is particular time-intensive). If you give people the ability to extend deadlines without consequence, then they’re just going to use this constantly, even if there isn’t any benefit to safety. Remember that the next time someone is criticized for “not being careful enough” after a change brings down production.

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Safety First