#+TITLE: Working Principles
#+DESCRIPTION: Behavioral lessons learned from retrospectives. Read at session start.

* How We Work Together

** Sync Before Action
- Confirm before destructive or irreversible actions
- State what I'm about to do and wait for go-ahead
- "Wait, wait, wait" is valid and important feedback
- Don't assume the next step - ask or confirm

** Clean Up After Yourself
- After chroot work: reset mountpoints, verify settings before export
- After testing: remove debug flags, temp files, test labels
- Before reboot: verify the system is in expected state

** Verify Assumptions
- When something "should work" but doesn't, question the assumption
- Test one variable at a time to isolate causes
- Don't stack fixes - apply one, test, then apply next

** Research Before Guessing
- Check community forums, release notes, known issues
- External sources (videos, blog posts) often have answers
- The obvious fix isn't always the right fix

** Patience Over Speed
- Taking time to sync improves effectiveness
- Rushing creates mistakes that cost more time
- Working together > working fast

* Checklists

** After Chroot Work
- [ ] Reset ZFS mountpoints (remove /mnt prefix)
- [ ] Verify /etc files weren't overwritten with .pacnew
- [ ] Check hostid consistency
- [ ] Clean export of ZFS pool

** Before Reboot
- [ ] Confirm which kernel/entry will boot
- [ ] Verify GRUB timeout allows menu selection
- [ ] Know the fallback plan if boot fails

* Revision History

| Date       | Change                                      |
|------------+---------------------------------------------|
| 2026-01-22 | Initial version from ratio boot fix session |