After explaining a system, revisit every 'obviously' and 'of course'
After explaining a system to someone with zero context, revisit any point where you said 'obviously' or 'of course' and document the unstated assumption those words concealed.
Why This Is a Rule
"Obviously" and "of course" are linguistic flags for hidden assumptions. When you say "obviously the service needs to be stateless," the word "obviously" marks a transition from explanation to assumption — you've stopped explaining and started asserting something you believe doesn't need explanation. But if it were truly obvious, you wouldn't need the word. "Obviously" is your brain's signal that it's about to skip over something it considers settled but hasn't actually examined.
Each "obviously" conceals a decision, a constraint, or a piece of domain knowledge that is invisible to your listener and, more importantly, undocumented. When you explain a system to someone with zero context, these linguistic markers fire most frequently — because the gap between your knowledge and theirs is largest, forcing the most assumptions to activate.
When This Fires
- After onboarding a new team member by walking them through a system
- After explaining your architecture to someone from a different team or discipline
- After any teaching or knowledge-transfer session
- When reviewing a recording or transcript of yourself explaining something
Common Failure Mode
Treating "obviously" as a conversational filler rather than a diagnostic signal. You say it, the listener nods (because they don't want to reveal they don't understand), and the assumption remains undocumented. Weeks later, the newcomer builds something that violates the "obvious" constraint, and everyone is confused about how this happened — because the constraint was never written down.
The Protocol
After explaining a system to someone with zero context: (1) Recall or review each point where you said "obviously," "of course," "naturally," or "as you'd expect." (2) For each, write down the unstated assumption: what exactly is "obvious"? (3) Ask: is this assumption documented anywhere? If not, document it now. (4) Ask: is this assumption still valid? The act of explaining often reveals that what was "obvious" five years ago is no longer true.