[stavros]

I don't know what your experience is, but mine is the opposite. Nobody ever notices people who put out fires, and it's hard to should "hey guys! There's a fire here that John started, I'm putting it out!" without looking like a jerk for outing John.

[HPsquared]

Fewer still notice the fire-preventer.

[stavros]

Oh, no, neither prevent the fires not put them out. Instead, predict them, and then say "see?" when they break out.

[HPsquared]

That's a risky business, you can get the blame if you're not careful. "Why didn't you try harder if you knew this would happen" etc.

[stavros]

If you say "look, the stuff they're doing there is risky, you should <do thing>", and they don't do it, how can they blame you? If they do do it, then mission accomplished, no?

E.g. "the way that team builds software isn't robust enough, you should replace the leader or we'll have an incident", how can you be blamed for the incident when it happens?