No Workarounds

A workaround is any change that makes a problem stop manifesting without addressing why it exists. It makes the symptom disappear while the disease spreads — a deferred failure that compounds. Fix the source, not the signal.

The gate — run before any fix

1. State the problem, then trace it to its root cause (use the systematic-debugging skill).
2. Does the fix repair that root cause, or only stop the symptom from showing?
3. Am I silencing a signal, or fixing a source?

Silencing a signal → redesign the fix against the root cause.
Root cause is external or genuinely unfixable → take the escape valve.

The fix is done when it would have been unnecessary had the code been correct in the first place — and it needs no cast, suppression, delay, or empty catch to pass.

The seven signals