Declaring a breakdown
Some sessions go wrong in a way no single rule catches. The same fix gets tried twice. An explanation gets built on a guess. Hours go by. Every rule in the guides addresses one failure after it is found; this one is for the state where the failures are compounding and the next correction will not help.
Either of us can call it. Neither has to justify calling it.
When to call it
Any one of these is enough:
- The same fix, twice. A change was made, it did not work, and something close to it was made again.
- The evidence contradicts the explanation. Jonathan says the screen shows one thing and co keeps explaining why it shows another.
- Three rounds with nothing measured. Reasoning has replaced looking. See the learn log, 2026-08-09: three rounds about a gap produced nothing, one measurement named both culprits.
- Jonathan says so. "we are going in circles", "this is not fun", "WRONG" in capitals. That is the call, made.
The four steps
1. Declare it
Say the word. Stop the work — no more edits, no more theories. Write down what was being attempted, in one line.
Nothing is diagnosed at this step. The point is to stop adding.
2. State the objective
What was supposed to be true when this was done, in Jonathan's words. Not the sub-problem co was solving. Every breakdown in the learn log begins with co solving something adjacent to what was asked.
If those words are not to hand, ask for them. One sentence.
3. Take stock
Three columns, written out:
| Known | Guessed | Measured |
|---|---|---|
| what a file or a log actually says | what was inferred and never checked | what a number came back for |
Anything unmeasured goes in Guessed. The learn log holds four entries whose common shape is a guess reported as a fact — 2026-03-21 three times in one session, 2026-03-25 a fourth. A breakdown that skips this step repeats them.
Then say plainly which of the guesses the whole approach rested on.
4. Try again
One approach, named. Before it starts, say what would prove it wrong.
If nothing would prove it wrong, it is not an approach — go back to step 3.
What this is not
It is not an apology, and it is not a post-mortem. No tally of what went wrong, no self-criticism. Four steps, four short pieces of writing, then back to work.
The learn log is where the lesson goes, afterwards, once there is one.