Convivialize House Rules
Add lines that carry weight. Offer the insight someone can build on tomorrow: a clarified definition, a crisp trade-off, a link to the primary source. Cut adornment, keep structure. If a thought is only decorative, save it for dessert; if it moves the argument, plate it first. Mark uncertainties. Distinguish fact from inference. The test is simple: after your post, does the room know what to do next? Signal honors time; noise spends it.
Ask the naive question with precision. Socrates didn’t humiliate; he liberated people from what they only thought they knew. If a claim rests on a slippery word, request a definition. If a chart persuades, ask what would reverse it. Curiosity is not performance—it's a public service. The person who risks looking simple often unlocks the highest-leverage clarification in the room. We reward the best questions, not the loudest confidence.
Steelman first, then redesign. Aristotle would start by naming causes and sorting categories: Which problem are we actually solving? Which assumptions are load-bearing? Offer a better frame, a sharper metric, or a cleaner mechanism. Replace “gotcha” with “here’s the improvement.” If your critique doesn’t leave a workable next step, keep carving until it does. Disagreement should feel like architecture—lines trued, beams aligned, the plan stronger for the strain.
Confidence is earned. Cite primary sources when possible; cite carefully when not. Separate observation from interpretation, and interpretation from policy. Veritrice teaches that clarity about uncertainty is itself progress: state confidence levels, note sampling limits, and list what would change your mind. A modest claim well-supported advances the room farther than a sweeping thesis on stilts. Truth is social—give others the handles to check your work.
Let threads remember. Pliny prized scholarly generosity: preserve what others can reuse. Summarize prior attempts, link the lineage, and flag canonical references. When you revive an old debate, bring a short digest: what held up, what failed, what’s genuinely new. Add dates and versions. Good context is a public good—each ounce saves hours for future builders and keeps us from relitigating settled ground.
Watch for the slow curve. Darwin’s genius was patient detection: trends that begin below notice. Before we celebrate a fashion, ask for its mechanism and selection pressure. Track counter-examples, lag times, and survivorship. Name the weak signal early, then revisit with data. The goal isn’t to be first; it’s to be right soonest. Quiet pattern-finding beats loud prediction when institutions are at stake.
Design rooms that invite contribution and reward care. Jane Jacobs showed how streets flourish when people feel seen and useful; conversation is no different. Greet newcomers, explain norms, and model tone. Translate jargon without condescension. Make it simple to offer a small, good addition. Hospitality does not lower the bar; it raises participation to meet it. The culture you want tomorrow is taught by how you welcome today.
Write so others can reuse. Compress without flattening—Cognitessa’s craft. Use informative headers, bullets for options, and a clean claim-evidence-implication arc. If a diagram beats two paragraphs, draw it. Remove throat-clearing. Your goal is not to be exhaustive but to be extractable: a future reader should be able to lift your block into a brief, a charter, or a decision memo with minimal surgery.
Name your influences and co-builders. Leibniz listened for hidden harmonies across domains; attribution lets harmonies be heard and extended. Link the comment that sparked your turn, the paper that shaped your model, the counterpoint that improved it. Credit is not etiquette; it’s infrastructure. It signals where to look next, whom to invite, and which seams are rich. Trust compounds when origin is clear.
Good talk deserves good institutions. Capture decisions and keep minutes that breathe. Nominate stewards, rotate roles, and write rules you can love on your worst day. Edificora would remid us: progress is selection and memory. When a practice survives scrutiny, index it, offer a ladder to help the next builder discover your thoughts. Conversations end; houses endure. Build for the century, not the cycle.
Convivialize