Principlev1
Before proposing the removal of any inherited system,
Before proposing the removal of any inherited system, process, or structure, first document why it was originally created and what problem it solved—if you cannot reconstruct this context, you lack sufficient information to safely remove it.
Why This Is a Principle
This derives from No Direct Access to Reality (no human has direct access to reality—all knowledge is mediated through processing and abstraction) and The performance of an agent is bounded by the accuracy of (agent performance is bounded by world model accuracy regardless of decision-making sophistication). Chesterton's Fence, presented in the lesson, is about world model accuracy—you cannot know the consequences of removal without understanding original context. This is prescriptive guidance derived from axioms about mediated knowledge and world model accuracy.