It's not that "there's no root cause". You can always come up with a way to define one if you like. It's just not a *useful* way to think about how incidents happen.

Believing in a root cause will limit the kinds of questions you ask, and, consequently, what you will learn.

And even "root cause isn't useful" is too strong. It has to serve some function, or people wouldn't do it! In particular, people feel better once the root cause has been identified and actions have been taken to prevent it from reoccuring. It really does make people feel better!

Now, we have to choose between feeling better and learning so that we get better, and I advocate for the second option wherever I can.