Honest incompleteness

Work in progress can be shown, as long as its status is explicit and the available material is meaningful.

The temptation is to wait until something is complete before making it visible. But completeness is rare, and much of the most interesting thinking happens while a thing is still becoming. The alternative to hiding is not exaggeration — it is honesty about state.

A concept is labeled a concept. An archived experiment is labeled as archived. Nothing is dressed up as more finished than it is. This is what lets an archive hold a finished product and an early experiment on the same shelf without the two being confused.