Why is the prevention work I do so undervalued?

You can keep a system running for years before it ever fails. And it galls you that this, the finest thing you do, is the least noticed and least rewarded. The paradox of prevention is cruel: succeed completely and it looks like nothing happened, so no one thanks you for the disaster that never came. Your resentment makes sense. You are being punished, in a way, for being good.\nBut consider where the value truly lives. The failure that never happened is invisible only to those who did not understand the risk. You know what you prevented. The system that hummed along quietly for years did so because of your hand, and that is a real, concrete good in the world, whether or not it shows on anyone's ledger. The worth of the work does not depend on applause it will never get.\nStill, you are right that this deserves to be seen more than it is. So do two things. Make your prevention visible where you can, note what you caught, what you headed off, so there is a record beyond the silence. And find your worth partly in the craft itself, the deep satisfaction of a thing kept whole by your skill. Let the quiet pride of the true expert carry what the world forgets to. Start keeping that record this week.