Like everything relating to “principles”, the definitions here are somewhat squishy. There exists a class of principles that feel more “concrete” and unambiguous than the more generic “do good things”-type principles.
Make the Decision that Informs all Subsequent Decisions.
I haven’t figured out how to really describe these, but here are some examples that come to mind, in particular Obsidian’s Manifesto comes to mind.
Examples
Zero Waste
Don’t do any activity that produces wasted material.
Obsidian’s Manifesto
You should go read it, it’s the best example I can think of.
- The dedication to durable, open file formats.
- Your data live on your device, and End-to-end encrypted if going to the server.
- Adaptable, that the tool should be as modular as possible and not “force” features on users.
- Obsidian is supported by users, not investors.