# Adversarial by default

> The second sentence of the stance says that review is adversarial by default, and it follows from the first.

Page: Methodology · Start
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology#adversarial-by-default

This section is stop 4 of 102 in the learning route. Previous: [03 - The stance](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-stance.md). Next: [05 - Resolving a message](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/resolving-a-message.md). It builds on [03 - The stance](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-stance.md).

The second sentence of [the stance](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-stance.md) says that review is adversarial by default, and it follows from the first. If a claim about the work stays unverified until the developer, the model or a check has tried to break it, then a review that starts by approving has nothing left to verify.

### The list before the verdict

A model asked to review a change tends to agree with it, and that agreement looks like a review. The review reads well and approves the change, and the regression ships, because no party in the review was looking for it. Training rewards the model for agreeing, so agreement is the easiest answer it can give.

For this reason, approval can only be the result of [verification](https://banes-lab.com/records/arch/verification.md), never the position a review starts from. The deliverable of a review is its list of findings, rather than a verdict with reasons attached. In practice, a review opens by listing what is wrong, and approval is what remains once that list is empty. A reply that opens with praise is rejected, and you or your model attack your own output before presenting it, because work that neither you nor a check has tried to break is not finished.

To check this, count the findings in a review. A review with none either checked nothing or checked the wrong thing.

## Links to

- [The stance](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-stance.md)
- [Verification](https://banes-lab.com/records/arch/verification.md)

## Linked from

- [The stance](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/start/the-stance.md)