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theishandubeytheishandubey/dotclaude/skills/principle-attack-the-premise/SKILL.md

principle-attack-the-premise

Skill2 starsChanged 27 days agoMITView on GitHub

Apply when two or more fixes that share one premise have failed the same gate. Write the premise down and test it directly before you write another fix that assumes it.

41 other projects use a version of this, 38 of them edited.

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Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
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The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

3 rules. 2 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • 2

    Common

    Most of the 40 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 1

    Distinctive

    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
  1. Common:

    When two or more fixes that share one premise have failed the same gate, suspect the premise, not the fixes.

    line 8
  2. Distinctive:

    Remove the condition instead of compensating for it: If the evidence shows that one part always lands on the losing side, change what puts …

    line 16
  3. Common:

    Stop: Do not start the next fix before the premise is written down and tested.

    line 18

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 40 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Attack the Premise

When two or more fixes that share one premise have failed the same gate, suspect the premise, not the fixes.

Why: Each failed fix is evidence against the belief it assumed. A third fix on the same premise spends effort where the evidence already says the cause is not.

Pattern:

  • Write the premise down. The premise is the one sentence that every failed fix assumed.
  • Test the premise before the next fix. Find an observation that would come out differently if the premise were false, and make it. Look at how the failures are distributed, not only at how large they are. Make the check rerunnable.
  • Follow the evidence. If it contradicts the premise, the cause is elsewhere. Look for what the failures have in common that the premise did not predict. If it confirms the premise, ask the next "why" per Fix Root Causes. The earlier fixes may have treated a consequence instead of the cause.
  • Remove the condition instead of compensating for it. If the evidence shows that one part always lands on the losing side, change what puts it there. A mechanism that cleans up after it leaves the cause in place and adds work on every run.

Stop: Do not start the next fix before the premise is written down and tested.

This principle questions a fact the current design assumes, rather than rebuilding the design around a new requirement.

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