NOT.7:4.3 - Construct a change at the source of the burden

Choose a change that alters the difficult operation. The following constructions supply starting points; their costs determine whether to keep them.

Difficult operation	Possible construction	Other work to inspect
Matching an item to its corresponding value or next step	Align the participating entries, give them shared references, or place the relation beside them.	Reading across another ordering, crowding and maintaining repeated entries.
Recovering the extent or operands of an expression	Make grouping or operand roles visible and keep their formation rule available.	Added space and the reader’s ability to construct the grouped expression.
Changing one assumption repeated in many places	Introduce a named common definition and make its uses recoverable.	Following references and expressing a legitimate local exception.
Reconstructing a long nested operation	Expose useful intermediate results with their inputs and continuation.	Additional names and the possibility of losing the connection between stages.
Exploring a construction before every choice is known	Permit a clearly marked partial expression and show which operations it already supports.	Distinguishing an unresolved choice from a completed value.

A local label, grouping mark or rearrangement can suffice. Use NOT.4 when an expression transformation needs a preservation argument, NOT.5 when the alternative omits distinctions, and NOT.6 when both forms will remain in joint use.

Keep the alternative small enough to inspect. If construction reveals that the original question was wrong or incomplete, revise the requirement through NOT.1. Do not keep optimizing the old operation merely to preserve the initial design brief.