A field guide
Manifesto
for humans who build
What do we believe in?
Eighteen rules, six chapters, one idea: people make the work, and the work deserves people who care.
Exactly
00
rules
I
Chapter 1
People
We are humans first. The code is just how we talk to each other.
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People are the point
Software is a conversation between people that happens to compile. We build for the person at the other end of the screen, and together with the person sitting next to us.
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Nobody is a resource
We work with curious people, not job titles. Everyone owns something from start to finish, and everyone can say I don't know out loud.
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Kindness scales
Clear reviews, honest feedback, no heroes at three in the morning. Teams that respect each other write better code and keep writing it for years.
This is our face. It is a little crooked, on purpose.
One eye, one smile, twenty-five squares. Nobody is perfectly symmetric, and nobody needs to be.
II
Chapter 2
Rules
Freedom needs a frame. We agree on the boring things so our energy goes to the interesting ones.
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Rules set you free
Conventions, checklists, naming, formatting. Decide once, write it down, stop arguing about it. Creativity lives inside constraints, not instead of them.
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Write it down
If it is not written, it does not exist. Every decision gets a date, a reason and an owner, so the next person can disagree with it properly.
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Leave it better
Every file we open is a little cleaner when we close it. Small debts, paid often, never become the reason a project dies.
Before anything ships
- It has a name, an owner and a reason.
- Someone else has read it.
- It is measured, not guessed.
- It fails gracefully and says why.
- It is documented for the next human.
- We would use it ourselves.
III
Chapter 3
Reason
Feelings start the conversation. Evidence ends it.
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Measure, then decide
Opinions are welcome, numbers settle the argument. We profile, test and benchmark before we believe anything, ourselves included.
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Simple is hard
The first solution is usually complicated. We keep working until it looks obvious, and then we delete what is left over.
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Explain it or remove it
If we cannot say why a line of code exists, the line goes. Understanding is not optional, it is the work.
IV
Chapter 4
Exploration
Curiosity is part of the job description, not a hobby we do after hours.
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Play is research
We keep a lab full of experiments with no client and no deadline. Most of our useful ideas started there, looking useless.
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Learn the layer below
Use the tool, but know what it does underneath. Curiosity goes one level deeper than the task requires, every time.
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Change your mind
Strong opinions, held loosely, updated with evidence. Being wrong early is cheap. Being wrong late is a product.
V
Chapter 5
Ideas
Ideas are cheap to have and expensive to finish. We respect both halves.
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The idea wins, not the ego
The best idea wins, whoever had it and whatever their title. The newest person in the room often sees what we stopped seeing.
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Fall for problems
We fall in love with problems, not with solutions or tools. A good problem outlives every technology we use to solve it.
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Make it real
An idea is a hypothesis until it runs. Prototype on Monday, argue on Tuesday, with something in our hands.
VI
Chapter 6
Depth
Surface is easy. Anyone can make it shine for a demo. We dig.
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Depth over surface
We would rather do one thing properly than ten things quickly. Shallow work looks cheap today and costs a fortune tomorrow.
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Details are the product
Easing curves, empty states, error messages, loading times. Nobody notices them, everybody feels them.
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Finish things
Shipping is a skill. Done, documented and maintained beats perfect and imaginary, every single time.
Move the light over the surface
Looks good. Ship it. Nobody will notice. It works on my machine. Fine for now.
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