This morning, I found myself once again thinking about the critical importance of feedback loops.

I thought about obvious examples where small bad things can so easily grow into large bad things:

– A minor breach can lead to complete pwnage.
– A small outbreak can become a pandemic.
– A brush fire can spark a continental wildfire.
– Petty theft can grow into large-scale fraud.
– A small skirmish can explode into world war.

On the other hand, careful reactions to that initial stimulus can result in a different set of dramatically-better outcomes… far better than would have developed without that negative initial stimulus:

– A minor breach can avert complete pwnage.
– A small outbreak can prevent a pandemic.
– A brush fire can prevent a continental wildfire.
– Petty theft can prevent large-scale fraud.
– A small skirmish can avert a world war.

When it comes to feedback loops, it matters how fast they are, and how they respond to the stimulus. Early losses can reduce risk by mitigating threats before they become too big to survive.

Sweat the small stuff, before it becomes the big stuff.

Impatient optimist. Dad. Author/speaker. Created Fiddler & SlickRun. PM @ Microsoft 2001-2012, and 2018-, working on Office, IE, and Edge. Now a GPM for Microsoft Defender. My words are my own, I do not speak for any other entity. View more posts