That is why I run a ls command before doing rm. (been bitten but accidentally hitting Return key instead of Shift on laptop :()

Also for Update/Delete query I run the equivalent select (rows or count(*) ) query first, just to make sure.

also make sure to write where predicate before completing the whole sql. (The sql does not go through by accidentally hitting enter, before the whole statement is written)

tl;dr - Run read operation before doing write/update/delete operations.