Tool · from Chapter 7
Seven Moves walkthrough
Walk one claim from splash screen to mechanism.
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Run them in order when the claim is expensive: religion, science hype, mystical fashion, political marketing, medical folklore, card readings, your own favorite theory.
1. Strip the splash screen
Ignore branding, holy language, tribal labels, influencer aesthetics. Ask what the claim actually asserts in plain mechanism language.
What is the actual claim without branding?
2. Demand mechanism
If there is no how, it is not a model yet. It is a mood, a slogan, or a sales page. Feelings can start the ticket. They cannot close it.
What is the proposed mechanism?
3. Decompose
A useful decomposition for spiritual-but-not-religious claims: (a) chassis claim, (b) network claim, (c) authorship claim, (d) ethical demand, (e) sales offer.
What modules are glued that should be separate?
4. Mental prototype
Ask: if this were true, what else would we expect to see? What sensors would move? What contradictions would appear in daily life?
What would I expect if this were true?
5. Falsify
Write the falsifier down before you get attached. “If X happens three times under stable chassis, I revise.”
What would falsify it?
6. Iterate
When packets contradict the model, revise the model. Agile thinking under load.
What evidence already conflicts?
7. Hold mystery as unknown, not forbidden
“We have not mapped it” is allowed. “Therefore crystals” is not automatic. “Therefore impossible” is not automatic either.
What stays open without becoming taboo or automatic truth?
The Seven Moves are from Chapter 7 of Deities & Developers, “Optimizing the Receiver”.