The Brutalist Guide to Ending Context Switching Hell in Security
Note: This is the first of three posts on how to align security with efficiency and help security teams stay focused.
Introduction: Why This Matters
Security professionals live in a whirlwind: a vendor review at 9 am, a threat intel alert at 9:17, followed by a compliance question, then jumping into an architecture review, only to get pulled into a zero-day fire drill. The modern security role is a death-by-context-switching trap, draining energy, killing strategic focus, and burning out even the best.
Security Brutalism offers a way to work through the details needed to push back against this mindset. It strips the security profession down to its most raw, direct, and effective form—focusing less on “managing the chaos” and more on getting results.
Law #1: Brutal Clarity Over Chaotic Coverage
"Context switching is the tax you pay for pretending everything is important."
What to do:
- Define Your Security Posture in 5 Sentences or Less. This becomes your brutal filter. If an interruption doesn’t fit your operating model, it’s ignored, delegated, or delayed.
- Prioritize by Risk, Not Noise. Noise loves to disguise itself as urgency. Brutalist security ignores unscored, unvetted distractions.
Tool tip: Use an ad-hoc kanban board in plain text. Divide tasks into:
- Musts (Do Now)
- Maybes (Wait List)
- Distractions (Ignore/Automate)
Law #2: Ritualize Deep Focus
"Ritual is the enemy of chaos."
What to do:
- Block daily “Still Hours” (minimum 2 per day). No meetings. No notifications. This is time for threat modeling, strategy, or actual thinking.
- Declare Context-Free Zones. Whether Slack snooze, calendar DND, or headphones, make it known: this time is sacred.
Bonus: Use "Security Sprints"—focused 2-hour bursts on a single domain ("only vendor risk,” “only threat detection tuning”).
Law #3: Kill the Multi-Channel Madness
"You cannot operate clearly in a system designed to confuse you."
What to do:
- Collapse Communication Channels. Pick 1 async (email or ticketing) and 1 sync (Slack or Meet/Zoom). Kill the rest or reroute.
- Centralize Intake. Build a single front door for security asks. Brutalist teams use a ServiceNow, JIRA form, or Slack workflow. No more “random DMs.”
Law #4: Automate Like a Cynic
"If you’re solving the same problem twice, you’re doing it wrong."
What to do:
- Build pre-approved responses for common asks. Bonus: Post them as an internal FAQ.
- Create decision macros. For example:
- Vendor with <10% org access? → Fast Track.
- Feature with no data flow? → Skip architecture review.
Security Brutalism respects automation not for elegance, but for survival.
Law #5: Build Brutalist Systems, Not Heroic Saviors
"The work should not rely on your context switching—it should outlive it."
What to do:
- Document once. Make your threat modeling approach or vendor assessment checklist live in a shared, easily findable system.
- Train your team to run without you. If only you can handle something, you are the bottleneck.
Bonus Brutalist Mantra: "I am not the system. I build the system."
Law #6: Measure Mental Load Like Risk
"Security that burns out the human is insecure by design."
What to do:
- Track context switches for one week. Write them down. Patterns will emerge.
- Treat each context switch as a cost. Include it in project ROI. If a project causes daily thrash, it's too expensive.
Law #7: Reject the False Urgency Economy
"Just because it’s loud doesn't mean it’s real."
What to do:
- Use a 30-minute delay rule. When something comes in "urgent" - and it's not critical - wait 30 minutes. If it’s still valid, respond. 80% of "emergencies" disappear.
Security Brutalism accepts true urgency. It just doesn’t worship fake fire drills.
Closing Words: Brutalist Security Is Sustainable Security
You are not a human switchboard. You are a threat strategist, a resilience builder, a chaos tamer. Security Brutalism strips away the illusion that more is better. It favors clarity, simplicity, and unapologetic focus.
Every time you stop a context switch, you reclaim mental RAM. Reclaimed RAM means better decisions, faster reactions, and fewer burnout cycles.
Try This Today
- Block 2 hours of Still Time.
- Create a "Musts" board.
- Set a Slack autoresponder: "Focused on high-risk work now. Use the security intake form for all requests."
Then breathe. You’re not behind. You’re just finally playing the real game.