Redundancy

Imagine that you’re on the way home after a night out, you’ve parted ways with your friends, and you’ve just arrived at the metro station. You reach into your coat pocket for your phone, but it’s not there. You check your other pockets - still no phone.

After allowing yourself a minute or two to come to terms with the fact that you’ve lost your phone, what do you do now?

Fortunately, I’ve never been in this situation before. However, I think about it sometimes. I consider how I can't call anyone for help without a phone. I wouldn’t have any money, so I can’t enter the metro station (though it’s probably worth negotiating with the service desk for free entry, telling them that I’ve lost my phone). I suppose the best scenario would be if a stranger is willing to lend me their phone so I can call my wife and then wait for her to get me. Though if she’s on a business trip, I’m out of luck because I don't have anyone else’s phone number memorized.

My reason for bringing up this hypothetical situation is to point out that we probably don’t think about redundancy enough. Most of us have anxiety when our phone’s battery drops below 20%, but we don’t do anything about it. We are severely inconvenienced when there’s a blackout at home, or when our internet is down at the office, or when our VPN stops working as we’re in the middle of submitting an online application for LSE.

Engineers understand the importance of redundancy in critical systems. Bikes have two handle brakes, cars come with an extra tire in the trunk, and commercial aircraft now almost always have more than one engine. Even Mother Nature doesn’t mess around when it comes to redundancy. We’re born with two eyes, two ears, two lungs, and two kidneys, among other things.

The question, then, is how do we incorporate redundancy into our lives?

Backup whatever can be backed up

• Data: develop a habit of saving copies of all important files in the cloud.
• Internet: sign up for a mobile plan with a good data package, to be used whenever existing broadband internet is too slow or stops working temporarily.
• Electricity: maintain a fully charged portable power source with solar array (eg. this one).
• Food and water: keep ~3 days’ worth of canned food and bottled water at home.
• When traveling: take at least two credit cards, a change of clothes in carry-on luggage, necessities such as an extra pair of eyeglasses, and ~$200 of the destination’s currency in small bills.
• Alarms and reminders: set two or more to enhance follow-through.
• Phone: I've found that an Apple Watch serves surprisingly well as a substitute for the iPhone it's paired with. It can store a metro card, utilize Apple Pay, and even send/receive WeChat messages if it's connected to a mobile data plan.

Carefully protect whatever cannot be backed up

• Passport, birth certificate, and other legal documents.
• Unpaired parts of our body (heart, brain, liver, etc.) and our overall health.
• Important relationships.

The above are not exhaustive lists; rather, their purpose is to encourage thinking more about redundancy, and taking significantly more care with elements that cannot be backed up.