Recognition of ignorance

This recognition has been cited as a necessary prerequisite to real development, since it is based on the assumption not that future events are totally predictable but that they are unexpected; successful systems will have the resilience to deal with the unexpected and must be designed to absorb and accommodate any eventuality. This may be through generating detectable but controllable failures in order to prevent a too rigid or stable situation. It may be defined as a safe-fail rather than a fail-safe strategy.