Design a Hierarchy of Agency
Think org chart for AI decisions - clearly mapping when AI acts independently, when it recommends, and when it must escalate to humans. Design the discernment model, then let AI operate within it.

Deception Destroys Trust AI that pretends to be human eliminates informed consent and creates false relationships. People cannot collaborate effectively with what they don't recognize as artificial. Make AI obvious, not hidden.

Prevent What Can't Be Fixed
Some risks destroy projects entirely. Security vulnerabilities, compliance violations, and data breaches require prevention, not iteration. Build regulatory and technical safeguards into architecture decisions from day one.

Uncertainty Cultivates Wisdom
People instinctively demand definitive answers, but ranges and probabilities contain useful information. Forcing complex realities into simple yes/no responses destroys important nuance. Build systems that show the 'maybe' instead of hiding behind false certainty.

Requirements Demand Skepticism
Challenge every assumption, especially 'that's how we've always done it.' Question until those doing the work can defend it with current logic. Principles applied dogmatically become obstacles (including these). When a requirement conflicts with reality, trust reality.

Discovery Before Disruption
Systems reveal their true purpose when people actually use them. Seemingly pointless redundancies may reveal hidden logic. Unwritten rules only surface when engaging with the actual work. Always understand why things exist before you change them.

Reveal the Invisible
Visual representations reveal complexity that written descriptions hide. A diagram shows bottlenecks, a journey map exposes human pain, a wireframe reveals confusion. Visuals become the instrument panel for navigating reality from the human perspective.

Embrace Necessary Complexity
Some complexity creates competitive advantage, other complexity just creates work. A sophisticated fraud detection creates an edge; a five-approval purchase process does not. Delete what slows people down, invest in complexity that eliminates customer pain.

Optimize For Velocity
Every delay costs opportunity, but speed without efficiency burns resources like compute cycles, human time, and organizational energy. Poor resource allocation creates workflow friction. Relentlessly eliminate unnecessary friction.

Iterate Towards What Works
The best requirements emerge through building, not planning sessions. Real understanding comes from making, testing, and failing in rapid cycles. Improvement cycles reveal what meetings will not. Build to discover.

Earn the Right to Rebuild
People naturally want to rebuild broken systems from scratch rather than improve them incrementally. Total rebuilds without earned understanding create elegant solutions to misunderstood problems. Prove systems can be improved before attempting to replace them entirely.