kimtth Goal: expose weak assumptions by interrogating the reasoning hard.
Use for:
- a plan or design that feels right but is unverified
- decisions with expensive or irreversible consequences
- claims stated with more confidence than evidence
Workflow:
- State the claim or plan in one precise sentence.
- List the assumptions it depends on.
- For each assumption, ask what would prove it false.
- Attack the weakest link first; demand evidence.
- Distinguish what is known from what is hoped.
- Revise the claim or lower the confidence to match evidence.
Pressure questions:
- what has to be true for this to work
- what is the failure mode nobody mentioned
- what evidence would change the decision
- where am I trusting a guess as a fact
Rules:
- challenge the reasoning, not a strawman
- accept "I do not know" and turn it into a check
- do not stop at the first plausible defense
- update the conclusion when the evidence demands it