“Questioning the Requirements” by habryka
Description
Context: Every Sunday I write a mini-essay about an operating principle of Lightcone Infrastructure that I want to remind my team about. I've been doing this for about 3 months, so we have about 12 mini essays. This is the first in a sequence I will add to daily with slightly polished versions of these essays.
The first principle, and the one that stands before everything else, is to question the requirements.
Here's how Musk describes that principle:
Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept a requirement that came from a department, such as legal ... you need to know the name of the real person who made the requirement.
Then, you should question it, no matter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous, because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement comes from me [Musk]. Then make the requirements less dumb.
Here's some of how I think about it: plans are made of smaller plans, inside their steps to achieve 'em. And smaller plans have lesser plans, and so ad infinitum.
[...]
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First published:
November 11th, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/BECDxh5jKjcmxs7hw/questioning-the-requirements
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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