Gating agent cost in CI is table stakes; the part teams still rebuild by hand is attributing a cost regression to the responsible diff hunk. Three tactics + an honest note on what the number is.
Some writing is designed to persuade, some to perform, and some to provoke. This essay is about a different category: writing that costs the writer — emotionally, socially, and internally — and why that cost is often the clearest signal that the work is honest.
Authoritarianism endures not because people want to be ruled, but because most people hope to be left alone.
