Pierre-Hugo Meynet

Principles

The smallest thing that holds

I do not look for the brightest object. I look for the part that still works when I am not there. Forty lines of shared constants did not become a library.

New tools, settled structure

I take a new framework when it earns its place, and I fix its version. The structure that it runs inside does not move at the same speed.

The process is what a client buys

The software is the process. A client sets the prices, the brand and the words. A request outside the menu widens the menu for every client. One client never gets a private version.

A boundary needs a stated reason

Two products stay separate when each one must answer for its own domain. That is a reason, not a law. A boundary without a stated reason costs as much as a real one.

Duplicate code is cheaper than a wrong abstraction

I write down the shared component that I expect to need, and the condition that starts the work. Until that condition happens, the duplicate code stays.

Reversibility sets the constraint

I do not tighten every part equally. Work that you can undo moves fast. Work that you cannot undo asks first.

An agent gets a closed menu

An agent proposes. The system decides. The agent selects from a fixed list of actions. An action that no one classified counts as one that you cannot undo.

Prove the check before you trust it

A check that you never see fail is not a check. A system that reports on its own work is not evidence. I prefer a system that stops to one that reports success without doing the work.