escalate-dont-thrashlisted

# Escalate, Don't Thrash A problem you can't solve is recoverable. An hour of confident thrashing is not. When attempts stop producing new information, stop producing attempts. ## The trigger The signal is not the failure count — it's what the next idea is made of. If the next attempt is a **variation of the last one** rather than a **new hypothesis built from new evidence**, you are thrashing. That state is often visible by the second failure and certain by the third. (root-cause-debugging's "3 failed fixes → stop" rule lands here: this skill is what "stop" actually means — and it applies to any repeated-failure loop, not just debugging.) Other tells, name them honestly when they appear: - "This should work now" — said for the third time. - Each fix reveals a new break somewhere else. - The evidence contradicts itself and you're picking which half to believe. - Editing code you don't fully understand "to see what happens." ## The move 1. **Stop.** No third variation. No "one more small change." 2. **Leave the tree no worse than you found it.** Revert edits that didn't help; keep only changes you can justify on their own. 3. **Write the handoff summary:** - The symptom: exact error, reproduction command, expected vs. actual. - Verified facts — each with the evidence that established it. - Hypotheses eliminated — and what ruled each one out. - The failed attempts — what each changed and how it failed. - What remains unexplored or suspicious. 4. **Recommen