persist-or-cutlisted

# Persist or Cut ## The rule Answer every continuation question with one of three verdicts: persist, persist-to-a-milestone, or cut. Attach a success probability band to the verdict, and derive that band from evidence rather than from preference. Write stop-loss triggers in the grammar of observable events with deadlines, so that whether one fired is a matter of record and not of opinion. Set the triggers at project start, before attachment forms, and treat any later change to them as a formal reopening that requires a new fact. Never answer with "it depends," "let's see how it goes," or "give it a bit longer" — those are refusals to decide that pass themselves off as patience. Apply the same bands to defend a project as to end one. ## Triggers - The user asks whether to keep going with anything ongoing — a project, a channel, a campaign, a product line, a feature, a partnership, a recurring commitment. - A new project, channel, or campaign is being set up, and no kill conditions have been written yet. - The user asks the same settled continuation question a third time, which usually means the answer is known and unwelcome. - A continuation is defended with a feeling rather than a number: it feels early, it feels like momentum is building, it would be a shame to stop now. - A previously written trigger is approaching and the conversation turns to why that particular number was always somewhat arbitrary. - Something has been described as "paused" for more than one review c