Marketing practice, written small
Recurring problems, written down when they recur
This file holds the observations that come up often enough to be worth stating once rather than re-deriving. They are deliberately short. Each one names a pattern, says what it looks like from inside the work, and stops before it becomes a method.
A sequence asks for a decision before it has given a reason. The step is not too long; it is in the wrong position. Moving the reason one step earlier usually costs nothing and changes the behaviour of everything after it.
A message reads well to everyone who already agrees with it, because it was drafted by people who do. The test is whether a sceptical reader can find the sentence that answers their objection, not whether an enthusiastic one enjoys the tone.
A measurement counts arrivals rather than intentions, so it rises when a headline overpromises and falls when it becomes accurate. The number is real; what it is a measurement of has quietly changed.
A step works only for readers who retained a fact from two steps earlier. It tests well on the intended path and fails on every other one. Read each step as though the reader arrived at it first.
Completion rises after every simplification and never after a change of reasoning. That pattern is not a sign that the sequence is nearly right; it is a sign that the reasoning is not the operative part of it.
Headings that assert rather than describe leave a reader who arrived mid-document unable to place themselves. Descriptive headings look duller in a review and work better on the page.
A line that never carried an argument has now been repeated for a year. Consistency of claim accumulates; consistency of phrasing past its usefulness mostly accumulates fatigue.
Deciding the format for the week forces every question into one shape. The questions that do not fit the shape are answered badly, or quietly dropped, and the file of unanswered ones grows unrecorded.
A paid arrival lands on a unit that begins the argument again instead of continuing the promise that produced the click. The most expensive part of the transaction is spent re-establishing what the reader already accepted.