Cautious Paranoia

I am a firm believer in practicing cautious paranoia.  I heard this term from Jared Diamond.  You may know him as the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, and The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies.  I highly recommend both of those books.  

Jared Diamond started his academic career as an ornithologist in Papua New Guinea.  He had experiences there that gave him the idea for the term cautious paranoia.  He had experiences in New Guinea where if he had practiced cautious paranoia things may have gone differently.

In the first story he was with ten New Guineans.  He was bird watching and doing research and the New Guineans were his guides and porters.  It had been raining all day long and all of them were very tired.  Jared went to sleep in his tent for the night and during the middle of the night he saw someone out side of his tent, he didn't think much about it because he was so tired and he thought it was one of the New Guineans that was in his group.  But there were foot prints outside of his tent and none of his party had been around his tent at night.  The New Guineans freaked out!  Someone had entered their camp in the middle of the night and there was a witch doctor in the area that was known for killing people.  If Jared had practiced cautious paranoia he would have shouted out to his companions and the man would have run away.  Jared reflects that he was very lucky that this man did not kill him. 

I lived in South Africa for two years and I learned how to have Cautious Paranoia there, I do believe that it saved me from being robbed a few times.

Really when it all comes down to it, Cautious Paranoia is another way of saying Situational Awareness, and think ahead before doing something. 

For example: My girlfriend will put her feet up on the dashboard while we are driving on the freeway.  I told her don't do that, if we get in a car accident then the airbag will break your legs and your feet may go through the windshield. Then you are screwed.  That to me, is a great example of Cautious Paranoia.