Hollnagel’s ETTO Principle

Hollnagel’s ETTO Principle does not tell you what to do. It tells you what not to forget while you do it.

The principle works because it moves the decision from the moment of weakness to the moment of clarity. You choose the rule when you are calm, so that the rule can carry you when you are not.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

An old house being emptied for sale teaches more than a philosophy seminar. Every drawer argues that things were never the point; every locked trunk disagrees.

In the end, life asks only whether we were awake while it happened. If this page made you think of one specific person, do not send it to them. Apply it to yourself first; that is how these things work.