Say / Mean

Mitigate vs eliminate

Reduce the likelihood or impact of a risk — not remove it.

“A canary rollout mitigates the outage risk. It doesn't eliminate it.”

When “eliminate” is right“Deleting the unused endpoint eliminates that attack surface entirely.”

From Sat, Sep 26 2026 · Describing problems & tradeoffs precisely

Practice it out loud

Explain the difference between "ambiguous" and "vague" using a real ticket or spec you've seen. No "um," no restarting the sentence — if you stumble, pause silently instead.

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