Say What It Isn't
Say only what it is not; the first positive term ends it.
Formerly Apophasis
Not finite, not indifferent — the negations draw the shape.
Seen in Ad Reinhardt, on the Black Paintings, New York, 1960s
Try it on your work
Assemble around the thing you're working on five things it is almost but isn't: the near misses, the lookalikes, the wrong versions. The thing's identity is the perimeter they draw.
Describe your project only in negations ("it is not a service, it is not for experts, it does not save time") until the negations corner something. Stop when one more negation would say it. Leave it unsaid; write the corner instead.
Specify what your system must never do, the full refusal list, before touching what it does. Stop when the refusals stop coming. Read the list; a surprising amount of the design is already made.
How it has been used
Describe the thing only by what it is not: negative theology's method, the sculptor's claim that the figure was found by removing what wasn't it. The move forbids positive terms: the moment you say what it is, the operation ends.
Where it leads
Grouped under Help me name what matters