# The honest gaps > Some things this method does not do. Page: Methodology ยท Ship Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/ship#the-honest-gaps This section is stop 96 of 102 in the learning route. Previous: [46 - Proxies give way](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/ship/when-not.md). Next: [01 - A concern is a component](https://banes-lab.com/software-architecture/scale/a-concern-is-a-component.md). It builds on [11 - The drop-in](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/onboarding.md). Some things this method does not do. Nothing computes worth: the [utility](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-tel-utility.md) and [cost](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-tel-cost.md) nodes of the ontology's teleology axis are empty slots here, and I make that decision myself. Nothing detects a lack of progress; [diminishing returns](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-ter-diminishing-returns.md) is a node I notice rather than a detector that fires. [Confidence](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-ver-confidence.md) is a threshold rather than a distribution, and several conduct rules have no artifact behind them yet. I state these gaps because a method that claims to be complete is one whose gaps you find in production. The architecture page keeps its own list of the same kind, where each gap is declared absent and never assumed. ### Declared absences A method that hides its gaps hands them to the reader unannounced. The method reads as complete, a reader relies on a guarantee it never gave, and the reader finds out where it matters most. A guarantee that nothing provides gets assumed by the developer or the model who needs it, and the assumption never fails where it began. For this reason an absence is measured and declared, rather than left for you or the model to infer or cover over. An absence is declared in the adapter rather than filled with a default in the core. In practice, a list is kept of the guarantees the method claims, and each is marked as held, derived or absent. To check this, read the declared absences; each should name what would fill it. A method with no declared absences has stopped looking for them. The absences are named in the adapter as slots that nothing fills. Whether a task is worth doing is a decision I make with a sentence written before the work, and no mechanism computes utility against cost across the options. No step compares a previous render with a fresh one, so the generators overwrite unconditionally and the drift check is the only signal of a fixed point. The gate has no detector for a run that thrashes, so it runs every step every time and cannot tell a converging run from an oscillating one. A claim passes or fails a threshold, and nothing carries a distribution of how sure the verifier is. No registry entry carries its own test of whether it applies, so every composition iterates over everything. Finally, no predicate compares a number written in prose against a real count, because prose carries no count and the predicate would have nothing to check. The naming standard is enforced. The reasoning ontology's epistemic and structural predicates run, and its conative layer is the gap described above, which the architecture page reads from its own side. An absence is measured before it is reported, just as a negative result is, as described in [a report, not a checkbox](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/a-report-not-a-checkbox.md). From inside a tree, a capability that nothing calls and one that does not exist look the same. ## Links to - [Tel Utility](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-tel-utility.md) - [Tel Cost](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-tel-cost.md) - [Ter Diminishing Returns](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-ter-diminishing-returns.md) - [Ver Confidence](https://banes-lab.com/records/reason/node-ver-confidence.md) - [A report, not a checkbox](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/a-report-not-a-checkbox.md) ## Linked from - [Document structure](https://banes-lab.com/pag/guide/document-structure.md) - [Well-formedness](https://banes-lab.com/pag/guide/well-formedness.md) - [The drop-in](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/onboarding.md) - [A check matches a shape](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/build/a-check-matches-a-shape.md) - [The honest gaps](https://banes-lab.com/software-architecture/coverage/the-honest-gaps.md) - [What the diagnoses found](https://banes-lab.com/anatomy/reading/what-the-diagnoses-found.md)