"If we've never had nuclear war, we're probably spending too many resources to avoid it." In all seriousness though, it seems that we're starting to follow thi

"If we've never had nuclear war, we're probably spending too many resources to avoid it." In all seriousness though, it seems that we're starting to follow this philosophy too far and applying it closer and closer to the territory of black-marbles / unsurvivable-black-swans. Or maybe it's just politicians that know they have the risks externalized from themselves so are more inclined to play lethal force games. But, even beyond this, there's great advantage in fully excluding a certain risk, because then you can totally stop thinking about contingency plans for it, and you gain mind-space that can be used for something else... Eg. if you're missing flights 10% of the time, then you need to dedicate mind space for knowing how to book a flight from the airport, or how to re-arrange your schedule to accomodate not arriving on time somewhere etc. etc. And these "contingency plans" add up and swell. Or you don't make them, but with a 1-10% failure rate of things you're living in constant stress and anxiety because things actually do fail/ break for you... Lower stress and freed mind-space may be worth it a lot, and this is way people do things over-conservatively and pay for non-crucial insurance etc.