principle-attack-the-premise

Apply when two or more fixes resting on one belief have failed the same gate (a test, a review, an eval).

SKILL.md

GitHub

Attack the premise

Fixes that keep failing at one gate usually share a wrong belief; another careful fix built on it fails the same way.

  • Once two or more fixes that rest on one premise have failed the same gate, make no further fix that assumes it until the premise is written and tested.
  • Write the premise as one sentence: the belief every failed fix took for granted.
  • Test it with an observation whose result would differ if the premise were false. Rereading the code that embodies the belief is not such a test.