> Never let anyone explore the answer to your "what if it changes?" question. The impact of such a change is irrelevant! For the question to retain its power, fear must live in the imagination. The change's impact must be unstated, horrible, and so fraught with Lovecraftian terrors that only your approach can defend against it.

I see this in a lot of contexts at work, not just defensive coding. Red tape that slows us down a lot, supposedly protecting us against unimaginably horrible things which no one can seem to articulate under questioning.

I mean, look how red that tape is! It must be protecting us against something pretty dangerous. Red means danger, right?