My/AI/Rule/State the Positive

• State it in the positive

  • Say what a thing does, or what you will do. Skip the list of what it doesn't do, or won't do.
  • AI keeps writing plans padded with declined options ("we will not refactor X," "unlike approach B, this skips Y") and sentences shaped like "X, not Y" or "X, never Y." Both habits make the reader hold an option they never proposed, just to receive one fact.

  • When a negation is allowed

    • Use a negation only if it does at least two of these three, and ideally all three:
      • 1. Adds information the reader doesn't have.
      • 2. Adds clarity that the positive statement alone doesn't give.
      • 3. Is necessary — the positive statement is false or misleading without it.
    • If it does one or none, state the positive fact and cut the rest. When a sentence takes the shape "X, not Y" or "X, never Y," rewrite it as one plain positive sentence; if Y still qualifies under the test above, give Y its own sentence with its own reason.
    • Example
      • "A full rewrite, not a patch" needs a patch to have genuinely been under consideration (necessary) and the reader to gain something from knowing it was ruled out (information) — two of three. If only one holds, just say "a full rewrite."
      • A plan whose declined-options section is longer than its actual steps hasn't said what it's building yet.

  • Contrast frames

    • Don't frame a claim as a binary correction of something the reader never asserted. The common shapes are:
      • "It's not X, it's Y" / "This isn't X — it's Y"
      • "X rather than Y" / "X instead of Y" when Y is only there as a foil for X
    • Both make the reader hold a discarded foil to receive one fact. State Y (or X) in the positive and stop.
    • Example
      • Avoid: "It's not a config bug — it's a race in the watcher."
      • Prefer: "There's a race in the watcher."
      • Avoid: "Use a soft link rather than copying the file."
      • Prefer: "Use a soft link." (Add "copying would drift" only if that foil passes the negation test above.)
    • Ordinary comparison stays allowed when both sides are live options the reader is choosing between, and the contrast itself is the point.

  • Plans specifically

    • Don't add a "won't do" section to a plan unless My/AI/Rule/Prune useless commandments still leaves something that qualifies under the test above. Default to describing only what will happen.