← The teachingsNever say it happened before it did

Only True When True

Never say it happened before it did

The teaching
A page, a system, or a person should never claim something happened until it has. Past-tense claims are only visible when they're true.
Before the laws
The bug was one sentence: You just drew the origin of everything — appearing before anyone had drawn anything. It's a small lie, and small lies are the ones that teach a reader not to trust you. The fix wasn't to soften the sentence. It was to hide it until the drawing existed. This turns out to be a rule for far more than pages.
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If it says you did, you must have.
Because trust is built at exactly this seam. One false past tense and every true one after it is doubted.
Read anything you've written to someone else. Every 'you chose', 'you placed', 'you've seen' — did they? If not, hide it until they have.
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Reveal on the act, not on the arrival.
Because arriving somewhere isn't doing something. The section that says 'you did' should open when the doing is detected, not when the page loads.
In a system, gate it on the act. In a conversation, wait for the act before you name it.
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The universal past is exempt.
Because 'you were held before you were born' is true of everyone, and doesn't need a gate.
Biography that belongs to every reader can be spoken freely. Biography that belongs to this reader waits for them.
The practice
Find one place — an email draft, a form, a habit app, a story you tell — where the past tense arrives before the event. Move it after.
Say only what has happened. Everything else is a promise wearing the costume of a memory.
A content rule from the practice pages, generalised. Read what it is →
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