Law 22 · Instruction & Output
Show, Don't Tell
When prose fails, stop writing prose.
The principle
If an instruction has produced the wrong result twice, writing it a third time more carefully rarely helps, because prose is always open to interpretation. Two or three concrete input and output examples kill the ambiguity that no amount of careful description can. Examples show the rule. Prose only describes it.
The mechanism, the warning signs, a worked example, and the apply-it recipe for this law are in the complete edition.
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