With great power comes great responsibility

Safety must be fundamental to software engineering work, not an afterthought or specialist concern - it includes security, privacy, reliability, and abuse prevention

Consider users part of your system - UX failures and “operator error” are system design problems. Make it easy to do the right thing and hard to make dangerous mistakes

Use a three-pronged approach to identify risks:

• System-first: Examine component failures and integration points
• Actor-first: Consider adversarial uses and misaligned incentives
• Target-first: Identify who could be harmed and how

Diversity in teams is critical for identifying potential harms - people with different lived experiences spot different risks

As staff+ engineers, you set the cultural standard for safety:

• Model threat assessment from initial system design
• Raise safety questions consistently in reviews
• Get teams thinking proactively about risks
• Build safety checking into regular processes

Safety vs business needs tensions are common - build senior allies and be ready to escalate when needed

Unknown failure modes are often more dangerous than known ones - plan for surprises

Impact of software failures can be massive - measured in lives affected, not just dollars

Take responsibility for indirect harms - just because someone used a system unexpectedly doesn’t mean it’s not your problem

Regular safety reviews should be ongoing, not one-time assessments - threats and usage patterns evolve