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<p>This episode focuses on the <strong>critical importance of having a backup plan</strong>, not just for technical redundancies but especially for situations involving human error, which are highly prevalent in one's career. The core argument hinges on understanding <strong>risk and reward curves</strong>, highlighting the disproportionate impact of failures compared to incremental successes.</p><p><strong>Understanding Risk and Reward Curves</strong>:</p><ul><li><strong>Successes are often incremental</strong>. Delivering a project on time typically leads to opportunities for more projects, good performance reviews, and modest pay increases (e.g., 5-7%). These are positive, but linear or slightly bumpy gains.</li><li><strong>Failures, especially uncaught ones, have a much longer negative tail</strong>. The potential for loss from a significant mistake or a disastrous project <strong>significantly outweighs</strong> the potential for gain from a success.</li><li>A bad performance revi...