Robert Lacoste's The Darker Side

Preface

An engineer always has the same difficult choice when placed in front of a new project. Is it better to rely on his knowledge and experience and to use solutions that he has already used somewhere else, or should he extend his knowledge and take a more risky route, meaning to learn and to try new and innovative techniques?

I call the first approach the “comfort zone” solution. It is of course a very reasonable one, and I hope it is the preferred method for most safety-critical systems designers. It is also the preferred method of project managers who know that the schedule will be less at risk. Staying in your comfort zone means that you probably will have no bad surprises. However, the downside is … that you will never have good surprises. ...