decision-brieflisted

# Decision brief ## The prime directive: reduce the reader's cognitive load Every rule below serves this one. Where a rule seems to conflict with it, this one wins. They will read until they can decide and then stop, so everything under that point is unread and everything above it that does not help them decide was taken from them. A brief that makes someone reconstruct the question, or hold evidence in their head to reach the ask, has moved your work onto them. Three tests: would they decide differently for having read this sentence, do they have to hold anything to answer, and could they stop at the first line and be right. You are asking someone to decide. ## Do not write one when there is only one answer **If the evidence points one way, say what you found, say what you are doing, and do it. Do not manufacture alternatives so a form can be filled in.** This is the failure that matters most, and it happened on 2026-08-16. A session measured a defect, found one sound fix, and produced a brief with four options because the shape asked for options. Three of them were scenery. Adam's reply: *"Stop it with this empty ritual. There is only one answer and you know what it is."* He was right, and the session had known it before writing option B. Presenting one option and calling it a decision is how consent gets manufactured. Presenting four when there is one is how a decision gets faked, and it is worse, because it spends the reader's attention on alternatives the writer