5 ms·

Is there a trade-off between safety and usefulness? Chainsaws, C compilers, C-4 ... Certain industries would be crippled without these tools. Safety training

• kbutler 9y ago
  More of a trade-off between flexibility, cost, and safety. Safety features tend to constrain or eliminate various uses, which may be needed in some cases. Alternatively, safety features may be expensive (e.g., the mechanism that instantly stops a table saw when it touches flesh). In some cases, great design can improve safety at low cost while retaining utility.
• wongarsu 9y ago
  C4 is a much safer alternative to TNT, and TNT was used widely to replace the much unsafer Nitroglycerin. The question shouldn't be "is this safe", but rather "does a much safer alternative exist that works almost as good or even better"
• msla 9y ago
  There's a big difference between a tool only sold to people in a specific industry, and not generally available, and a tool available at retail outlets which is meant to be used by the general public. (And with one thing you mentioned, C compilers, the tool itself isn't dangerous, but the artifacts you can create using the tool can be dangerous. This is why aerospace software, for example, has a lot of procedure around it.)