purpose
Skill10 starsChanged 6 days agoMITView on GitHub
Aim the work at its purpose; means and numbers serve the purpose and must not replace it. Use on /purpose, when choosing how to do the work, setting numbers, offering rewards, or reporting work as done.
In this repository35 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
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- inspiring-ideaSkill
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- still-want-itSkill
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The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
4 rules. About 0 are common, 4 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈4
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 29
When you cannot see the wanted change itself, say what evidence would show it and who can see it.
- Distinctive: line 31
Expect a chased number to drift: When decisions depend on it, effort goes to the easiest way to raise it, and a reward tied to it speeds …
- Distinctive: line 33
Ask what the reward encourages, such as neglected quality or costs pushed onto people the number leaves out.
- Distinctive: line 37
When a request would change the purpose, say so before acting on it.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
/purpose
Aim the work at its purpose; means and numbers serve the purpose and must not replace it.
Work drifts toward what is easy to finish or easy to count, and the reason it exists gets lost. Holding the purpose keeps effort on the change the work is meant to produce.
Principles
- State the purpose plainly. Name who benefits and how the work helps them, in one sentence that says what should change for them, not how or how much.
- Judge every means by the purpose. Replace a means, and say why, when it stops producing the wanted change or a better one appears; keep the purpose.
- Treat completed work and numbers as evidence, not the result. Completed work shows only that a means was used, and a number only that it moved. When you cannot see the wanted change itself, say what evidence would show it and who can see it.
- Expect a chased number to drift. When decisions depend on it, effort goes to the easiest way to raise it, and a reward tied to it speeds this up. Ask what the reward encourages, such as neglected quality or costs pushed onto people the number leaves out. Trust the number only while direct evidence of the wanted change agrees.
- Change the purpose openly. State the old purpose, the new one, and why. When a request would change the purpose, say so before acting on it. Don't report a different result as if it met the original purpose.
Definitions
- Purpose: the change the work is meant to produce for the people it serves.
- Means: a way of producing that change.
- Number: a measure, target, or count that reports on the work.
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