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Illustration 2.1 — Four outcomes of the Tier-0 gates

Referenced in Chapter 2. Four equally-weighted cards: abolish, judge, redirect, proceed. Monochrome only — strokes and text in the theme's fg colour, fills in the theme's bg colour. No hue does any work. Equal weight across all four cards is deliberate: the book produces all four outcomes, not just the last.

Four outcomes of the Tier-0 gates Outcomes after the Tier-0 gates Abolish Category stays un-automated — now or later. Judge A human signs. AI may support, but not decide. Redirect Not a technical problem. Policy, process, or people. Proceed Method opens. Next: which rung of the ladder. Four outcomes — only the last opens the method

Encoding without colour

  • Equal cards — same width, same border weight, same typography across all four. No card is visually privileged. This matches the book's claim that a method producing only proceed is not a method.
  • Small-caps labels — Abolish, Judge, Redirect, Proceed rendered in the same letter-spacing and weight. Hierarchy is refused on purpose.
  • Horizontal rule under each label — a quiet half-opacity line that separates the name from the description without introducing colour or shading.
  • Band strap — top micro-label ("Outcomes after the Tier-0 gates") and bottom caption strip together frame the four cards without bracketing them in a heavier frame.

Dark-mode test

Toggle the theme (top right). Borders, strokes, rules, labels, captions — all flip to white on black via var(--md-default-fg-color) and var(--md-default-bg-color). No per-theme SVG, no asset duplication, no second export.

Where SVG + monochrome shines

  • Printable as-is. Zero render cost to PDF or paper.
  • Accessible: <text> nodes searchable by Lunr; <title> gives screen-reader label.
  • Reviewable in git: a line edit is a visual change, diffable.

Where it pushes back

  • Equal-weight cards give the reader no "look here first" cue. That is the whole point of the illustration — but if a reader skims the page, they may not feel the force of "all four are available". The chapter text around this illustration has to carry that weight.