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Illustration 1.1 — Six answers the book produces for any problem

Referenced in Chapter 1. Six equally-weighted cards, arranged in two rows: two Tier-0 refusals (produced above the method) on top, four G3 placements (produced inside the method) below. 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 six cards is deliberate: the book produces all six answers, not just the last two. Four of the six are non-AI outcomes.

Six answers the book produces for any problem Six answers the book produces for any problem Refusals — at the two Tier-0 checks Off-limits to AI AI stays out of the category — now or later — regardless of future model capability. Not a tech problem The fix is policy, process, or people — not a tool of any kind. Placements — at G3 Route Human- operated No automation earns its place. A person does the work. Non-AI automation Rule, script, or classical ML. Fixed substrate. AI as assistant A human decides. AI supports — retrieval, drafts, options. Autonomous AI AI decides under controls built for the decision. Six answers — four of them non-AI — each available, each defensible, none presumed

Encoding without colour

  • Equal cards, with row grouping — same border weight and typography across all six. The two top cards are wider (they are alone in their row); the four bottom cards share their row. No card is visually privileged by stroke or fill. This matches the book's claim that a method producing only the last two answers is a sales funnel, and one that produces only the first two is a manifesto.
  • Small-caps labels — Off-limits to AI, Not a tech problem, Human-operated, Non-AI automation, AI as assistant, Autonomous AI 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.
  • Row bands — two micro-labels ("Refusals — at the two Tier-0 checks" and "Placements — at G3 Route") tell the reader where in the method each row is produced. The bands carry the only hierarchical information in the illustration; they do it with letter-spacing and opacity, not with weight or hue.
  • Caption strip — the bottom line ("Six answers — four of them non-AI — each available, each defensible, none presumed") states the thesis the illustration is there to support.

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 six are available". The chapter text around this illustration has to carry that weight.
  • Two-line labels were introduced for the bottom row ("Human-operated", "Non-AI automation", "AI as assistant", "Autonomous AI") to keep the card widths narrow enough to fit four across. The label font is 12px at 0.06em letter-spacing; further expansion of the label vocabulary would need either a third row or a widening of the viewBox.