mac-health-checklisted

# Mac Health Check A diagnostic *discipline* for keeping a Mac fast and long-lived — not a "cleaner." The difference: you **measure first, find the one binding constraint, and fix that** — instead of applying generic cleanup tips that optimize things that aren't the problem. > Symptoms lie about their category. "It's slow" often presents as a CPU problem, > is caused by memory, and is fixed on disk. That is why you audit every dimension > before touching any one of them. ## The method (follow in order — do not skip Phase 0) 1. **Baseline** — run the read-only audit. Never diagnose from memory or assumption. 2. **Find the constraint** — apply the USE method (Utilization / Saturation / Errors) per resource. A system has *one* binding bottleneck at a time; improving anything else is invisible. Saturation (work *queuing* behind a resource) matters more than utilization (how busy it looks). 3. **Rank interventions** by `impact-on-the-constraint ÷ (cost + risk)`. Cheap, reversible, high-impact first. Amdahl's law: fixing a 2%-of-the-problem thing caps your gain at 2%, however elegant. 4. **Propose with trade-offs stated. Get approval. NEVER auto-delete.** Change one category at a time. 5. **Re-measure** — confirm the constraint moved. Then find the *next* one. 6. **Stop when the objective is met.** Optimizing a healthy machine is pure cost. **Prefer removing over adding.** The wins are subtraction (fewer login items, less junk, a reboot), not addition (RAM ut