name: foundational-thinking
description: Guidance to apply before solving a problem: get the foundation right first. Use at the start of any non-trivial task, before designing or coding. Name what is actually being asked, the real constraints, the invariants, and the failure modes, so you don't build correctly on a wrong base.
Foundational Thinking
Most expensive mistakes are not bad code; they are good code built on an unexamined assumption. Spend the first effort on the foundation, because everything downstream inherits it.
State the real problem
Write, in a sentence, what is actually being asked, separate from the solution someone proposed. The proposed solution is often a guess at the problem; solve the problem, not the guess.
Name the constraints and invariants
List what must always be true and what genuinely constrains the space (real limits, not inherited habits). These are the things a correct design has to respect; making them explicit is how you stop violating one by accident three layers in.
Find the failure modes early
Ask what breaks this and what the worst input is, before you build the happy path. Designing with the failure cases in view produces a different, sturdier shape than bolting them on afterward.
Don't build on an assumption you haven't checked
When a plan rests on "I assume X," verify X or mark it as the risk. The cheapest place to catch a wrong foundation is before you have built on top of it.
