Plankton.
MMXXV
№ 01
Plankton

Interrogate
everything.

Plankton is a structured system for interrogating documents, products, businesses, policies, processes and ideas before conclusions are reached.

§ 02
Compression

Every finished thing is a compression.

  • Documents.
  • Products.
  • Companies.
  • Processes.
  • Policies.
  • Images.
  • Ideas.

Everything arrives carrying conclusions.

Very little of the thinking survives.

§ 03
Reconstruction

Interrogation reconstructs what disappeared.

  • Assumptions.
  • Trade-offs.
  • Failures.
  • Alternatives.
  • Constraints.
  • Unknowns.
  • Context.
  • Contradictions.

These become visible again.

§ 04
Method

The method follows the problem.

There are no preferred tools.

Only useful tools.

People
AI
Search
Patents
Standards
Scientific literature
Archives
Documents
Data
Code
Simulation
Experiments
Models
Interviews
Photography
Video
Physical inspection
Financial records

The problem chooses the method.

Never the other way around.

§ 05
Pressure

Every interrogation needs different kinds of pressure.

  1. 01Domain expert
  2. 02First-principles thinker
  3. 03Systems thinker
  4. 04Sceptic
  5. 05Wild card
  6. 06Person who lives with the consequences

No single perspective is enough.

§ 06
Iteration

Interrogation is iterative.

Questions create evidence.

Evidence creates better questions.

Every answer produces another interrogation.

Understanding is built through repeated cycles.

Not certainty.

§ 07
Conclusion

Compression comes last.

Only after interrogation.

Only after evidence.

Only after challenge.

Only after reconstruction.

Only then should knowledge be compressed.

The conclusion is never the product.

The interrogation is.

§ 08
Output

Plankton produces interrogations.

Not reports.

Not opinions.

Not summaries.

Questions
Evidence
Assumptions
Alternatives
Contradictions
Sources
Reasoning
Conclusions

Searchable. Reusable. Challengeable. Expandable.

§ 09
Submit

Bring us something.

  • A document.
  • A process.
  • A policy.
  • A decision.
  • A strategy.
  • An image.
  • A claim.
  • An idea.

We'll interrogate it.

§ 10
Defensibility

Every important decision will eventually be challenged.

  • By customers.
  • By engineers.
  • By procurement.
  • By regulators.
  • By lawyers.
  • By directors.
  • By history.

Plankton exists to ensure that decisions are made using the most complete, interrogated and defensible information available at the time.

The objective is not certainty.

The objective is a decision that can survive interrogation.

Every interrogation should ask:

  1. 01Can this decision be defended?
  2. 02What evidence supports it?
  3. 03What assumptions remain?
  4. 04What is still unknown?
  5. 05Who lives with the consequences?
§ 11
Philosophy

Plankton is not advice.

Search finds information.

Analysis explains information.

Advice recommends action.

Plankton interrogates.

Plankton does not exist to provide advice.

Plankton exists to improve the quality and defensibility of decisions.

§ 12
Consequences

Interrogation exists because consequences exist.

Commercial
Financial
Engineering
Legal
Safety
Reputational
Operational

Every interrogation should move a decision closer to being evidence-based, challengeable and commercially defensible.

§ 13
Challenges

Every criticism of Plankton is itself interrogated.

  • Isn't this just risk assessment?
  • Isn't this just critical thinking?
  • Isn't this just consultancy?
  • Isn't this simply AI?

Each challenge becomes part of the evolving methodology.

No criticism is ignored.

No methodology is exempt from interrogation.

Including Plankton.

§ 14
Prior Art

Plankton respects existing disciplines. And interrogates them.

Risk Assessment
HAZOP
FMEA
Peer Review
Due Diligence
Audit
Red Teaming
Critical Thinking
Systems Thinking
Design Review

For every discipline we ask:

What problem does it solve?

Where does it stop?

What assumptions does it make?

What can Plankton learn from it?

Originality is not claimed unless supported by evidence.

§ 15
Journal

Every day's work improves the methodology.

Question
Interrogation
Evidence
Unknowns
Contradictions
Prior Art
Protocol Changes
New Principles

A version-controlled research record. The methodology itself is never exempt from interrogation.

§ 16
Statement

Plankton does not make decisions.

Plankton improves the quality of the information used to make them.