Drawing Snake Legs
Updated 2026-08-09
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
From the Stratagems of the Warring States, the story concerns a wine-sharing contest in which whoever finishes drawing a snake first wins. The fastest painter, seeing time to spare, adds feet; another finishes first and takes the wine, noting that snakes have no feet. The tale warns that once a task is complete, further additions can convert a success into a failure by violating the defining property of the thing being made.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Define done: state the completion criteria before you start adding anything further. - Test the addition: ask whether the new element serves the core or only demonstrates effort. - Stop at the peak: ship when the result satisfies its purpose, not when effort runs out.
Anchor fast decisions
Every artifact has defining features that make it what it is. Additions that do not serve those features dilute them, so perceived quality falls even as the amount of work rises. Because effort is felt as virtue by the maker, the maker misreads added complexity as improvement while the user experiences only higher cost.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zdic.nethttps://www.zdic.net/hans/%E7%94%BB%E8%9B%87%E6%B7%BB%E8%B6%B3verified
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