A fall often feels sudden, but slips are frequently incremental—tiny choices that accumulate until the final consequence seems inevitable. Because of this, the proverb encourages you to reconstruct the chain: the overlooked warning sign, the rushed step, the unasked question, the moment you assumed rather than verified.
This way of thinking resembles the “five whys” technique popularized in industrial problem-solving at Toyota, where investigators repeatedly ask why an issue happened until they reach a root cause rather than a surface symptom. The proverb captures the same discipline in a single vivid image. [...]
