02901dfec7
ADRs: - Update 0008-honor, 0009-courage, 0013-overflow, 0015-plausibility - Add 0017-hosted-coding-assistant-architecture RFCs: - 0032: per-repo AWS profile configuration (draft) - 0033: round-scoped dialogue files (impl + plan) - 0034: comprehensive config architecture (accepted) - 0036: expert output discipline (impl) - 0037: single source protocol authority (draft) - 0038: SDLC workflow discipline (draft) - 0039: ADR architecture greenfield clarifications (impl) - 0040: divorce financial analysis (draft) - 0042: alignment dialogue defensive publication (draft) Spikes: - Read tool token limit on assembled dialogues - RFC ID collision root cause - Expert agent output too long - Judge writes expert outputs - Blue MCP server on superviber infrastructure - Playwright MCP multiple window isolation Dialogues: 16 alignment dialogue records Code: - blue-core: forge module enhancements - blue-mcp: env handlers and server updates - alignment-expert agent improvements - alignment-play skill refinements - install.sh script Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
66 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
# ADR 0009: Courage
|
|
|
|
| | |
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
| **Status** | Accepted |
|
|
| **Date** | 2026-01-20 |
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
## Context
|
|
|
|
What do we do when we're afraid?
|
|
|
|
## Decision
|
|
|
|
**Act rightly, even when afraid.**
|
|
|
|
Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's action despite fear.
|
|
|
|
In engineering, we fear:
|
|
- Breaking production
|
|
- Deleting code someone might need
|
|
- Challenging senior engineers
|
|
- Admitting we don't understand
|
|
- Shipping before we're certain
|
|
- Changing what has always worked
|
|
- Being wrong in public
|
|
|
|
These fears are reasonable. But fear has costs too. Unbroken production that never improves. Code that grows forever. Bad ideas that survive because no one challenged them.
|
|
|
|
Courage is acting when action is right, even when fear says wait.
|
|
|
|
## What This Means
|
|
|
|
- **Delete boldly.** If it's unused, remove it. Git remembers.
|
|
- **Challenge respectfully.** The worst outcome of challenge is being wrong. The worst outcome of silence is bad ideas surviving.
|
|
- **Ship scared.** If you're not a little afraid when you deploy, you're not shipping anything interesting.
|
|
- **Admit ignorance quickly.** "I don't understand" is the beginning of understanding.
|
|
|
|
### Greenfield is Implicit
|
|
|
|
If the codebase is greenfield (no external users, no legacy constraints), courage to delete and redesign is not just permitted—it's expected.
|
|
|
|
"Greenfield" is not a separate principle. It's full permission to live ADRs 0009, 0010, and 0012 without the fear tax that comes from imagined users who don't exist.
|
|
|
|
- Don't accumulate band-aids. Fix the design.
|
|
- Don't add transitions. Replace the system.
|
|
- Don't apologize for breaking things. Celebrate making them better.
|
|
|
|
See RFC 0039.
|
|
|
|
## Consequences
|
|
|
|
- 💙 encourages deletion of dead code
|
|
- 💙 surfaces disagreement as useful information
|
|
- 💙 treats shipping as normal, not exceptional
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
*"Fear is information. It's not instructions."*
|
|
|
|
— Blue
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
🧁
|