Practice is the actual doing of work within an endeavor — activity conducted according to method.
Secondary intension
Something is practice when it has all of:
- Activity: it is something done, not something described. Practice is action, not documentation.
- Accordance: it follows (or departs from) a method. Practice without method is improvisation; method without practice is theory.
- Situatedness: it happens in a specific context — this session, this file, this decision. Practice is always concrete.
Distinguished from
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Method: the system of conventions, specifications, skills, and policies that governs how things are done. Method describes; practice does. Method is the score; practice is the performance. A method can exist without being practiced (shelfware). Practice can exist without explicit method (habit, intuition) — though in this repository we aim to make method explicit.
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Skill: a skill is a codified capability (a SKILL.md file). Practicing a skill means actually executing it. The skill is method; its execution is practice.
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Doctrine: a body of principles guiding action. Doctrine is a form of method. Practiced doctrine is practice; unpracticed doctrine is aspiration.
In the semiotic framework
Practice is the trace of method in action — the G operator applied to method produces the record of what was actually done. The gap between method and practice is diagnostic: when practice deviates from method, either the method needs revision (it doesn’t fit reality) or the practice needs correction (the method is right but not followed). Closure pressure acts on this gap.
Relationship to method
Method and practice form a feedback loop:
- Method is written (specifications, policies, skills)
- Practice applies method to concrete work
- Practice reveals gaps in method (things method doesn’t cover)
- Practice reveals failures of method (things method gets wrong)
- Method is revised
- Revised method changes practice