Consider this: If you're conducting tests and measuring your points of failure over numerous iterations, you eventually find the "threshold" of success. Exactly

Consider this: If you're conducting tests and measuring your points of failure over numerous iterations, you eventually find the "threshold" of success. Exactly how much howsit and whatsit you need to produce a desirable outcome. Then you can pile on a margin of safety as needed. Continuous improvement of this sort eventually results in an efficient system or structure along with robust documentation of failure modes which you can then anticipate and accomodate. Also, there are different ways things can fail, E.G. catastrophically vs gracefully. For example, when your steel bike fails it will generally start creaking and slowly bend, allowing you to come to a stop or even ride home. Your carbon bike bike on the other hand is more prone to snapping or shattering, a catastrophic failure mode with potentially grave results.