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+name: Composition discipline — tabula rasa with few elements first; add later if appropriate, never start full and subtract
+description: 2026-04-29. Steward directive on the Hic+Adsum composition. Start spare with few appropriate elements; add only if appropriate; never start full and have to trim. Inverse of the over-reach failure mode. Cousin to "Would Alexander do it?" (one pattern at a time). Lived in practice across the entire Hic+Adsum threshold composition.
+type: feedback
+originSessionId: 122baf2b-1029-4ec9-9723-99b4b5f3a64d
+---
+**2026-04-29.** Steward directive opening the Hic composition: *"Tabula rasa—this deserves a clean start retaining few appropriate elements at first and, if appropriate, adding things later rather than having to subtract."*
+
+**The pattern named:**
+- When rewriting (not editing) a stale artifact, the failure mode is to *bring forward too much* and then trim — preserves elements out of inertia rather than fittingness
+- The corrective: start with as little as possible. The inheritance is *justified by appropriateness*, not by previous existence
+- Adding later is honest growth; subtracting later is correction of an earlier over-reach
+
+**How to apply:**
+- When opening a composition that replaces an existing artifact, audit each carry-over element on its own merits — *would I write this if I were writing it from scratch?* If no, leave it out, even if it was in the previous version
+- When composing fresh, draft at the lower end of viability. Not at the upper end with the intention to trim
+- *"Could I add this later if needed?"* is a better question than *"Should I include this now?"*. The first defaults to absence; the second defaults to presence
+- Holds even for elements with sentimental or historical weight — Emerson epigraph, Swift's amendment, etc. Each carry-over is a fresh authorization, not a default
+
+**Lived in practice (Hic+Adsum, 2026-04-29):**
+- Stale `pages/about.md` had Emerson epigraph, Swift's amendment paragraph, bio paragraph, eleven-door site-map, Reading Compass list, Technical Notes, Contact section
+- New page kept exactly: nothing of the prose (full rewrite)
+- Reused: only the URL `/about/`, the title field "About", Swift translation as bare line on Hic (added back after consideration; full attribution stayed on Colophon where it does formative-laral work)
+- Result: ~110 words across two register-marked sections vs the previous page's many hundreds
+- Steward's substantive prose revisions in dialogue (*"writing that earns its attention"*, *"a violist, and, here, a writer"*) were further compressions on the spare draft, not expansions
+
+**Why this matters:** sibling to several already-saved patterns —
+- `feedback-would-alexander-do-it-test.md` — *one pattern at a time* — same shape (start spare, prove necessity); composition register
+- `feedback-over-decorating-as-proving.md` — fear-driven over-reach; same root, this directive is the inverse-discipline that prevents it
+- `feedback-composition-avoid-announced-antithesis.md` — same logic at sentence level (drop announcing flourishes; trust context)
+
+The directive operates *at composition opening*, before drafting begins. The other patterns operate during drafting and revision. Together they form a discipline of beginning + holding + revising in the same key: trust the simpler form, add only when the simpler form proves insufficient.