situate

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name: situate description: Place a thing inside the larger system it serves, and read what that system asks of it

Steps

1. What crosses its edge?

Name what feeds it, what takes what it produces, and what it serves. Name the smallest system that holds all three; that system contains it.

2. What does the container ask of it that it cannot see from inside?

Name each limit, rhythm, expectation, and competitor for the same resources that the container imposes.

3. Does the next level up change anything?

Answer the first two questions again for the container. Stop at the first level where the thing's purpose is plain, or where the next level would change nothing about the thing.

4. What changes about the thing once it is seen in place?

State what shifts: its purpose, its priorities, or what counts as success for it.

Output

Choose the mode from what you were handed:

• A question set: answer it.
• A request for questions only: write the question set and stop.
• Anything else: write the question set, then answer it.

Write the question set in this form: one question per step, in step order, each reworded to name the subject, so that a reader holding only the set can answer it.

**Subject:** [what is examined, named so it can be found without this conversation]

**Given:**

- [a fact, source, or limit the answers must respect] ([where it came from])

**Questions:**

1. [step 1's question, naming the subject]
2. [step 2's question, naming the subject]
3. [step 3's question, naming the subject]

Answer in this form, keeping each question's number and wording, from the set and from what you can check yourself:

**Subject:** [the subject, as the set names it]

1. [step 1's question, naming the subject]

   [the answer]

2. [step 2's question, naming the subject]

   Skipped: [why this step does not apply]

3. [step 3's question, naming the subject]

   Open: [the fact the answer needs that the set does not give]