Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the tendency to find evidence to support what one believes. It is a syndrome that is naturally common to mankind. In order to achieve safety and sustainability there may need to be complete changes of thought. For sure new paradigms must be embraced. The effect can be exhibited in ways that lead us down the wrong path.

There is a song that seemed to have some lyrics that did not make sense. I did not recognize the singer's voice. For some time I have periodically searched for the lyrics. I looked for "no stop and go love," "no stop and go love in your heart." I found nothing and was baffled.

I decided to contact the radio station that frequently plays the song. They asked me when I last heard the song so they could search the log. Coincidentally I had been at a drive up ATM when I last heard it and had the receipt with the time on it. The song was "No Stopping Your Heart" by Marie Osmond. The reason that I could not find the lyrics was that I was looking for "no stop and go" when  I should have been looking for "no stopping no." Confirmation bias did not allow me to think that the reason I could not find it was because it did not exist as I thought it to be. I was encouraged in my wrong thinking when I discovered that others had been searching for the same thing as me and were asking on answer websites such as ask.com to no avail.

While the search tool was reliable I was also believing in the search terms. Results were nil. I did not consider that my own hearing had been faulty.

David Sneed

Cowboy Safety Principles

The purpose here is to organize the principles of Cowboy Safety.

There are some conflicts with conventional wisdom.

As an  example Say's Law works on the concept that Supply Creates its Own Demand.

Cowboy Safety often works on the principle that Demand Creates its Own Supply. You may have heard it as "Necessity is the Mother of Invention."

David Sneed

Safety from 1014 B.C.

Cowboy Safety goes way back.

This morning I ran across a new reference from 1014 B.C. It is from the Bible. I use King James. Here is I Kings 4:25:

"And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."

I could write a book about this. So could you.

This definition  of safety is easy to understand.

There is nothing complex. There is no equipment. No training. No licensing.

If you have ever been to the Mediterranean countries you can understand even better. There are vines and fig trees and olive trees and other types of plants. They provide shade and shelter. I love going to a restaurant. The tables are outdoors under the vines. Relax. There is no rush. Have a cold beer or a glass of wine. In Greece you would at least start with Raki that is already on the table. What would you like to eat? The proprietor is there. He or she will get it for you? "Have you got fish?" "Sure. Come in the kitchen and pick out what you want. My son just caught it this morning right over there." Do you get the point? This is the way to live all the time.

Safety is all about how to always feel that way where everything is what you want when you want it with no trouble.

Cowboy Safety is the technique for how to get it for yourself and your business and how to give it to others.

David Sneed

What is Cowboy Safety?

Cowboy Safety is a common sense approach to safety that reduces injuries and other losses while enhancing profits and company image. It reinvents safety for the 21st century global economy.

Cowboy Safety does not dwell on industry statistics, average costs of a workers’ comp claim or on making and enforcing rules and regulations. It does not concentrate on high-cost reductionist safety management processes that often fail. Press reports of refinery fires, confined space incidents, train and bus crashes and many smaller incidents show that more often than not the obvious is not considered.


Cowboy Safety assumes limited resources yet a job that must be done. The nameless cowboy in Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter survives not just with his technical skills but by constantly anticipating what could happen and being prepared for it. Having a gun on his lap in the barber shop is more important than a stack of training cards. Cowboy Safety starts with real needs and attitudes rather than a safety video filmed in a studio.

While anchored in the past Cowboy Safety is taken from a vision of how things could and should be. Sources may be anecdotal in origin but are scientific in practice. With history and fictional stories, a laboratory is created that is unaffected by the “noise” and familiarity of the present world.

As an example picture if you will three cowboys riding in a pickup truck. Which one is the real cowboy? The answer is the one in the middle. He does not have to drive and he does not have to get out of the truck to open and shut gates. He could be described as lazy and may be napping. In fact he is a pragmatist. There is a lower probability of an incident that would keep him from his real job. Many injuries and fatalities occur and much collateral damage is caused from driving when driving should not be done and working when working should not be done.

In a real incident near Lander Wyoming three men were injured in a head-on crash on a snowy day with low visibility. They observed all of the defensive driving techniques of slowing down, lights on, seatbelt usage, scanning and driving to the right. But why were they driving? They had gone back to the shop for more parts because they had not planned properly at the start of the day. There were costs other than the crash that involved their entire company and its mission. Cowboy Safety would have prevented this incident.
Cowboy Safety programs are customized and localized. The process is boiler plate but the deliverable is not. Each program is collaborative and is reconciled with the business and relevant environmental models. A dynamic safe experience involving social technology is designed that considers all stakeholders. The organization achieves sustainable and measurable improvements with dramatically reduced costs.

David Sneed