"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." I think that's true and that's part of the reason we'd had issues in our financial markets over the last couple of years.

Steve, I could not DISAGREE with your premise more... Risk may come from not knowing what you are doing, but the biggest lesson coming from our financial mess is that these people knew exactly what they were doing - they were greedy, and ripping off honest citizens. For example, its very hard for me to imagine that Bernard Madoff did not know very well what he was doing as he unloaded his illegal scheme all over people. And it would be simply mindless to presume that the thousands of mortgage agents writing loans they knew the people could not pay - so they could get their commission - did not know exactly what they were doing.

So though I would respect Mr. Buffet, I would re-tinker the concept: Risk comes from people with low morals and no ethics who have bought into the concept that if they just take care of themselves, the rest of the world will somehow get by. It doesn't, it isn't and we can thank these jerks for our current state of affairs.

To that end, IT people should remember that they serve end-users, not themselves, and thus deliver something they can be proud of, not ashamed of. Pride in your work, and a knowledge that it is a reflection of you as a person, would go a very long way to keeping risk in check.