Where there is room for a single point of failure in life, one must expect that there will inevitably be a chokepoint.
For this reason, one builds redundancy around such single points of failure.
Do you have only one car to get to work on Monday? Then you always need a backup option, no matter how reliable that car may seem.
Do you have only one job to pay the bill on Friday? Then you always need a backup option, no matter how reliable that car may seem.
Do you have only one grocery store you like to shop at? Then you always need a backup option, no matter how reliable that car may seem.
Last week and this week, I lost a member of my team that I didn’t build redundancy around. Don’t worry — it will only be for a short time. It had impacts far beyond what I expected, because suddenly everything else was strained in ways that I didn’t expect.
But you see, being put under strain, being pressure-tested in ways that does not irreparably fracture the whole system is good.
(This piece of writing continues at my Substack and ends with an encouraging video that I’ve been watching all week. Go saunter over there if you haven’t been there lately. And sign up as a free or paid member if you are not already.)
It lets you recognize the strains and act to improve the situation.
This is supremely important to be able to do — even better if you can do it without needing to be put through the pressure test of a system.
Murphy’s Law, says “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
It sounds like it comes from a pessimistic Silicon Valley nihilist who consumes too much soy and who I want to bonk over the head with a cricket bat for spreading so much pessimism in the world.
It doesn’t come from that kind of person, though. It comes from someone far better — someone who looks at systems and who sees the need for redundancy.
In my offensive political activism, I look for single points of failure. I look for weaknesses in the opposition, and I attack. The Freedom of Information Act and other public records tools can be supremely useful for this. They are part of the single point of failure. They are, at once, a weak underbelly and a very useful tool against tyranny. The sunlight it offers is cleansing.
Ridicule is supremely useful. The ego of the tyrant is a powerful weapon that he uses to convince you of his superiority, but which, in almost all situations, folds in the face of the slightest resistance.
Finding that single point of failure in your opponent is powerful.
Some people are so self-unaware that they do not even realize that you have found a weakness, only that you are causing discomfort. They therefore lash out at you.
A more sober, more honest, self-aware adversary says “Oh, I obviously left a single point of failure in my operation. That needs correcting.”
In the year 2023, you are more likely to just be screamed at. That is how unfamiliar self-aware thinking is to many opponents you or I will find today.
Now, that being said, if you find yourself under pressure, and all you can do for days at a time is to scream, you have not built yourself a resilient system.
And that’s okay. Let the screaming out. Just not in front of others, especially not an opponent. Never let them actually see you scream when you mean it.
This email is me screaming at you (not really screaming at all), my friend “Boy have I built us a pitifully non-redundant system. Boy do I have to do better.”
And better will I do.
At such moments, I find that prayer, Bible, more prayer, sober thinking, writing, hard work, and addressing single points of failure go a long way.
I thank God for the challenging last week. He’s put me through a test that I am going to be stronger for once complete.
In the midst of it, I have had the joy of this quote from the 45th, 46th, and 47th president of the United States to remind me exactly what not to do.
“I have seen people quitting,
and if they would have held out longer
they would have been successful.
I’ve seen it so much.
I’ve seen some of the most brilliant people in the world
that never made it because
they were quitters.
They were just quitters.
They would quit.
They just couldn’t take it.
They couldn’t whatever,
but you can never give up.”
https://twitter.com/laraleatrump/status/1686522369513271296
I am stretched in so many ways right now that I would never have imagined my life in — and I mean that in a good way. One year ago, I wouldn’t have expected this. Five years ago my life was unrecognizably different. I had to be shaken to get the kind of re-focussing I’ve gotten. I had to go through some stuff.
I am more uncomfortable than I have ever been my entire life.
That discomfort is called growth.
In other important ways, I am more comfortable than I have ever been my entire life.
These are ways I have never been comfortable my whole life. I know my relationship with God has changed that.
While that discomfort I describe is called growth, I also know that the comfort I am experiencing is growth as well. My spiritual growth has been like that of a four year old child learning everything she can.
I know I am headed in the right direction.
Now, I know that I am making this all about me.
But I’m merely putting myself out there as an example. A human example that fails bigly sometimes.
I fail in significant ways a number of times a day. It is part of sticking your neck out there and engaging with the world.
This post isn’t just about me though. It is meant to be an illustration of more. It is meant to be about you.
Where is there a single point of failure in your life that needs serious addressing? Where are you just waiting for the inevitable day to come when you will have lost so much for not addressing that single point of failure?
For most people, it is the fact that they have not come head on with what the Bible is saying and what eternity will look like.
That is the most common single choke point, the most common single point of failure. A spiritual battle undergirds everything around us.
But there are likely many others chokepoints in life that need dealing with.
I would like to ask you to take a moment in the day or two ahead to address some of those: to make your life bigger and better, and by extension — making your family bigger and better, your community bigger and better, even the vast freedom movement we are a part of bigger and better.
Allan Stevo
Redundancy frequently precludes resilience.
Never surrender. xxx