# When Robustly Tolerable Beats Precariously Optimal - Amanda Askell's Blog Synced: [[2024_03_08]] 2:25 PM Last Highlighted: [[2024_03_08]]  Summary: "Robustly tolerable" refers to things that perform adequately in various situations with some insulation against negative shocks, like a safe car with moderate speed. Making something robustly tolerable often involves trade-offs in performance or agility. This trait is crucial when the expected costs of failure are high, as seen in governance structures where robustness helps prevent catastrophic failures. While robustness may seem less enticing than optimal performance, it can be a valuable quality in preventing disastrous outcomes, especially in critical situations. ## Highlights [[2024_03_08]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrehh6h10h14qvjdx5exd1q0) > Something is "robustly tolerable" if it performs adequately under a wide range of circumstances. Robustly tolerable things have decent insulation against negative shocks. A car with excellent safety features but a low top speed is robustly tolerable. A fast but dangerous sports car is not. [[2024_03_08]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrehhgc5naymn01jb5vp59br) > We often have to pay a price to make something more robustly tolerable. Sometimes we need to trade off performance. [[2024_03_08]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrehj2jvnxkk9gfg7z3vjgmp) > Being robustly tolerable is not a particularly valuable trait when the expected costs of failure are low, but it's an extremely valuable trait when the expected costs of failure are high. The more high impact something is—the more widely a technology is used or the more important a piece of infrastructure is, for example—the more we want it to be robustly tolerable. When a lot is on the line, we're more likely to opt for a product that is worse most of the time but has fewer critical failures.