The comment had to do with the tech world's tolerance for risk, and for the failure that sometimes comes with it. People like that aren't taking enough chances. If you hit eight out of ten, that's Cisco way. This kind of atmosphere is destructive of creativity and initiative. I cannot image a good newspaper, for example, surviving under that kind of microscopic scrutiny that is applied to public official.
Any mistake is a potential career-killer.
Politicians are that way, obviously. No wonder they don't pass laws any more. It's too risky. They have become so worried about running afoul of lawyers and congressional oversight committees that in recent years, they have almost gone out of the spying business. He is hardly a zero-defect guy.