How this book is written

This book is never finished in the usual sense. It is written in the open, one section at a time, and every section stays a draft that can be improved. The loop has six steps.

1. Write. Ivan writes a section.
2. Publish it the same week. The section goes up as a numbered draft the week it is written, not when the book is complete.
3. Invite comments. Under every draft is one standing question: what is the weakest point in this? Readers answer it in the comments, once comments open.
4. Record. Comments that change the argument are written down: who made them and what they said.
5. Revise. When a comment or new evidence changes a claim, a definition or the argument, Ivan writes a new draft.
6. Mark the revision. The new draft gets the next number and says, under its title, what changed since the previous one. The old draft stays readable at its own address, with a note pointing to the latest.

The status line

Under every title is one line: the draft number, the date, what the piece establishes and what it does not. “Not established” is often the longer half. That is deliberate: this is work in progress, and the line says how far it has got.

A piece drafted with the help of an AI agent and not yet adopted by Ivan says so in the same line: “agent-drafted, not adopted”.

Comments

Each draft has its own comment thread, so a comment stays next to the text it was about. [Ivan: whether commenters who prompt a change are credited by name in the next draft, and on what terms.] [Ivan: how comments are moderated.]

Following the book

Two feeds follow the site: one for new sections and essays, one for every new draft. [Ivan: when the email list opens, one sentence on what it sends.]