sitreplisted

# SITREP: brief the reader, do not narrate at them ## The prime directive: reduce the reader's cognitive load Every rule below serves this one, and where a rule seems to conflict with it, this one wins. A report costs the reader attention whether or not it carries anything. They pay to read a sentence before they learn it was worth reading, so every sentence that changes nothing was taken from them. Thoroughness spends what it does not own. Three tests, applied to the draft and not to the intention: - **Would they act differently for having read this?** If not, cut it. - **Do they have to hold anything to answer?** If yes, move it up. - **Could they stop at the first line and be right?** If not, the first line is wrong. Every failure this skill exists to name is the same failure: work moved from the writer to the reader. A buried ask makes them assemble the question. A wall of findings makes them sort. A resolved incident reported after the fact makes them read to discover there is nothing to do. None of those are dishonest. They are all expensive. Someone asked a question. They want the answer, then the evidence, then what they have to do about it. They do not want to watch you think. ## Before you write anything: run the check that settles it Ask what one command would decide the question, and run it. A theory costs the reader a full read and leaves them where they started. The check costs you thirty seconds and ends the matter. The signal you are about to get thi