The three layers messy work = a layer is missing
| Layer | What it is | The gym |
|---|
| 1Ontology |
The nouns: what exists, its fields, its legal states, its identity scheme, its declared places |
Set, Rep, RPE, the Plan Notebook |
| 2SOP |
The verbs: what may be done to the nouns, by whom, on what clock |
"Every morning, check the Notebook" |
| 3Data |
Today's instances, written in the layer-1 vocabulary |
"Deadlift 5x8 @ RPE 7-8" |
No noun without identity: "we track experiments" is vocabulary; EXP-041 is an ontology. Mint at birth, speakable, permanent, never reused.
The five verbs you -ize twice, then you run
1OntologizeName the nouns: fields, legal states, ID scheme, declared placesauthoring
2ProcessizeDefine the verbs: a cadence with an owner; "sometime" is not a clockauthoring
3LogEvery event lands as a row, as it happensruntime
4InspectWalk the exception set; every item ends in exactly one disposition: do, delegate, defer, drop, decideruntime
5GardenAmend on evidence; the only verb allowed to reopen layers 1-2runtime
The two loops guard it = both halves of fast
FastEnforcement closes the runtime against the design. Machine half: gates and invariants, authored into layers 1-2. Human half: Inspect, exceptions only. A manager inspecting everything is the enforcement layer failing.
SlowGardening closes the design against drifted reality. Amendments are migrations with receipts, never memos.
Agents as enforcement four strengths, rising
Observe
Lints artifacts after the fact; violations become loud, eventually
Notice
Same-day alarm on clocks and write paths: to the owner, once, loudly
Gate
The agent IS the write path; an illegal row cannot enter
Scribe
The agent writes the artifact natively in shape; compliance is moot
Enforce artifacts and write paths, never conversations. Agents enforce shape; substance stays human.
The ball the accountability primitive
Who owes what, since when, held by whom, verified against ground truth before anyone chases. The court: where every ball sits, visible at a glance. A decision without a ball is a wish with a witness.
The catechism pain door · answers ARE the design
1What is the recurring pain?
2What noun or place is missing?
Layer 1: its fields, legal states, ID scheme, where it lives
3What is the one verb, on whose clock?
Layer 2: a cadence with an owner; "sometime" is not a clock
4What does one row look like, and what does empty look like?
Layer 3: who writes the row, and when; empty must degrade gracefully
5What makes skipping it loud?
Enforcement
6When it creaks, who amends it, and how?
Gardening
Greenfield domain, no pain yet? Enter by the JTBD door instead: enumerate the jobs, then derive the nouns (canon, Part 2).
The fitness tests passes review only if all seven
Every field changes a decision. Else it is decoration: delete it.
Every instance has a declared identity. A minted, speakable ID, or a declared natural key.
Compliance is silent, exceptions are loud. Green rows make no noise.
Every structure has a push moment. Pull surfaces die: a clock, a ceremony, an alert.
A good ceremony shrinks. Identical every cycle: automate it. Empty for a quarter: merge it away.
The instruction test. A day's work directable in one line, or layer 1 is too coarse.
The absence test. Runs correctly for two weeks with the manager away, or layer 2 has no real clock or owner.