There is apparently an academic named Gordon Tullock at George Mason University who insists that we would all drive much more safely if we attached a big spike to the steering wheel and point it directly at our chest.

This example makes an interesting point (no pun intended about safety – that there may be different perspectives involved. In the case of vehicle safety, we may care about the safety of the driver (and passengers) or the overall safety of other cars, pedestrians, etc. So seat belts, for example, provide safety to the driver but may actually make the rest of the driving environment less safe because it makes the driver too comfortable. In the case of the spike, it makes the driver obviously less safe, but presumably would result in extremely cautious driving to the betterment of the driving environment.

In security, there is an old analogy about how security is like brakes in the car. Folks often think of brakes as slowing down the car, but ultimately they provide the comfort to the driver to allow him/her to go even faster. Consider how fast you might drive without brakes – not very. Of course, this may not be good for safety, but it provides an interesting perspective on how security can be used to enable business by providing brakes that allow us to go faster.