The Power of When: Rethinking Time in Cybersecurity, Secure SDLC, and Life

After spending three days writing a blog article about the evolution of the Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), I found myself pausing not to reflect on what I had written but to think more deeply about when things happen.

We constantly discuss speed and time in cybersecurity and software development: faster releases, shorter patch cycles, and tighter timelines. But speed and time aren't just project metrics but philosophical ideas. Without movement, there is no time; without time, there is no change, and change is the only constant in our lives.

Yet, the most powerful insights often come not from accelerating but from pausing and asking better questions.

Beyond Why, Who, and What: Ask When

In problem-solving and systems thinking, we often start with familiar questions:

• Why are we doing this?
• Who is responsible?
• What tools or frameworks should we use?

These are all important in cybersecurity, SDLC, and life. But with experience, I've realized something even more powerful:

It's not about the Why, Who, or What, it's about the When

You can have the perfect strategy, the best tools, and the most capable team. But if your timing is off, you're not securing your systems; you're just patching vulnerabilities that already slipped through.

You can plant a seed in the richest soil, with abundant sunlight.

But if it's winter, it won't grow.

Security That Comes Too Late… Isn’t Security

Timing matters. A lot.

• A pentest report?delivered after deployment? That’s a liability, not a checkpoint.
• Threat modeling?after the code is written? That’s retrofitting, not design.
• Stakeholder buy-in?after decisions are made? That’s damage control, not alignment.

The?When?determines whether a security effort is proactive or reactive, whether it builds resilience or just mitigates risk after the fact.

Chronos vs. Kairos

In ancient Greek, there were two words for time:

• Chronos: the ticking clock, the deadlines, the sprint schedules.
• Kairos: the opportune moment, the?right?time.

Our industry is full of?Chronos (structured time). We track velocity, measure throughput, and organize releases around timelines. But true wisdom, and secure systems, require an understanding of?Kairos. The moment when action has the greatest impact. The invisible force that turns effort into momentum.

We don’t talk about?When?enough. And yet, it’s often the hidden multiplier behind success.

• A?well-timed conversation?can shift company culture.
• A?poorly timed pentest?becomes a report no one reads.
• A?security champion program?launched at the right moment becomes a movement.
• A?hard truth, shared too early (or too late), becomes noise instead of growth.

Flow: Where Challenge, Skill, and When Converge

There is no secret that I am passionate about psychology and philosophy.

I asked myself why, with some roles and projects, I was just into it from the beginning and not with others. Why was the creative process different? I started a quest to understand how that works.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduced the concept of flow, the state of being "in the zone," where people are fully immersed and performing at their best.

Flow happens when:

• The challenge is just right.
• The skill matches the task.
• And, crucially, the timing is right.

Too much challenge too soon leads to anxiety.

Too little challenge too late creates apathy.

But when the task meets the moment, flow happens.

In Secure SDLC:

• A developer forced to threat model without context? That's frustration, not flow.
• Security training delivered months after a breach? That's guilt, not growth.

Timing isn't just a scheduling issue.

It's a human issue.

Let When Guide You

So next time you're in a sprint, on a security review, or making a life decision, don't just ask:

• Why am I doing this?
• Who is responsible?
• What should we do?

Instead, ask:

When is the right time?

Because the difference between security that works and security that fails often comes down to one thing: When.