The paper considers how we should set about designing safety-related systems (as defined in standards such as IEC 61508) to be safe. Using two transportation examples, it considers the degree and extent to which adherence to industry-specific process standards (the ‘magic’ approach of the title) would lead us to a complete, safe solution; deducing that this approach would lead to an incomplete solution, the paper shows how we need to rationalize what we mean by safety in the particular context, before determining a more holistic and ‘logical’ approach to developing a functionally safe design.