# Principles (Not Rules)

Great cultures are created with principles not rules. We can set as many rules as we want, but there will always be loopholes. But if we act based on guiding principles, chances are that we misbehave less.

Acting based on priciples is a learning process. It's how we grow together.

## General

1. Act like an owner. Make decisions like you own this place. When you travel, stay in the hotel you would if you are spending your own money. When you need to take time off, take what you need to recover.
2. Take the set of actions that are most likely to make the future better. And then reevaluate the actions to make sure it’s true. Do this for everything at Bitmark. Think of it like a purpose driven approach using the [scientific method](/6Jy4Gq5zRt2PGFR-An5CYg?view#Scientific-method).
3. Make sure you have corrective feedback. And that you can maintain that direct and feedback loop over time even when people want to tell you exactly what you want to hear.
4. Always take the position that you are to some degree wrong and your goal is to be less wrong overtime.
5. The constraints that you’re given are guaranteed to be to some degree wrong. Your goal is to make the contraints less wrong over time.
6. The questions that you're given are guaranteed to be to some degree wrong. Don't just give the right answer (like you must in college). Say this is the wrong question. Your goal is to make the question less wrong over time.

## Development
1. If the design is taking too long it’s probably wrong.
2. Simplify your product as much as possible.
3. One of the most fundamental errors in project management is sticking with the design even when it’s very complicated and not strike to delete parts and processes.
4. One of the biggest traps smart engineers make is to optimize things that shouldn’t even exist in the first place.
5. The product errors represent the organizational errors.

## Decision Making
1. If you are split, take the one that is more painful. More expensive. In terms of time, money, reputation.
2. Make a decision and write it down. But then don’t tell anyone for 24 hours. Then ask yourself are you excited or afraid to tell people.
3. If there was an emotional component then give yourself 24 hours after the decision to cool down.
## When in doubt (Use Scientific method)

We believe the scientific method to be one of the great tools humans have ever invented to create knowledge. If you follow it, you will be less likely to fool yourself. To learn how it works, study the master:

{%youtube EYPapE-3FRw%}

### Elements
1. Characterizations
2. Hypotheses
3. Predictions
4. Experiments

### Scheme
1. Define a question
2. Gather information and resources (observe)
3. Form and explanatory hypothesis
4. Test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data and a reproducible matter
5. Analyze the data
6. Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
7. Publish results
8. Retest (frequently done by others)