The mental model of redundancy is one that we’re all familiar with, and likely becomes more engrained as we grow older and learn from our mistakes. Creating redundancy can take a bit of work, but has tremendous benefits if it’s called into play.
A common redundancy that I push for is to keep more backups on hand. This post that you’re reading is backed up in at least three places other than my website (two daily backups that we run, plus the automatic backup from our hosting company). There is essentially no chance of ever losing the content from this site, or any site that we manage.
We see this a lot in travel as well. Your car likely has a spare tire; the tire cost extra money and takes up valuable space in your car, but in the event that you need it, it’s worth gold.
Airlines are another good example. Planes are full of redundant systems, almost always including multiple engines and even multiple pilots.
Many of us add redundancies after a mistake slowed us down. I think we all know someone that lost the data on their computer and didn’t have a backup, but now they’re fanatical about keeping things safe. The further ahead you can plan and build some redundancies into your life and your systems, the smoother things are likely to go for you.
