Sure.
Being sure. Thinking you’re sure. Acting as though you are sure. We do it all the time. In one sense, it’s impossible not to. To live a normal life, you have to.
On the other hand, when it comes to safety – on and off the job – certainty is a failure trap of the first magnitude. Certainty shows up all the time, but often goes unrecognized as the “root cause” of the problem.
Here’s a breathtaking example. But you’ll have to re-run the video a time or two to be able to recognize the way in which certainty independently trapped not one but two highly trained, qualified and motivated adults.
Don’t be fooled by appearances: certainty is self-imposed. In that sense, nobody is ever a victim of certainty!
Paul Balmert
June 2019