P77 · 2026-10-21

P77: Take the Starting Photograph Before Sorting

Preserve a practice hand’s original layout before rearranging it. Some preparation steps cannot be recovered simply by doing them later.

The tutor asks for a before-and-after record of a card-sorting exercise. Aditya sorts the hand neatly, then remembers to take the “before” photograph. He can still make a picture, but it will no longer show the arrangement the exercise began with.

Identify the dependency

The starting record must be made while the starting state still exists. Sorting changes that state. Taking a later photograph cannot recover it unless another reliable record preserved the original positions. Guessing where the cards probably lay would add invented evidence to the review.

Other preparations may be independent. Bringing a pen and opening the notebook can happen in either order. The group distinguishes those tasks from the photograph-and-sort sequence instead of treating every item on a checklist as interchangeable.

Aditya begins a fresh attempt with the cards deliberately rearranged and records that new starting layout. He labels it as a new attempt, not a reconstruction of the lost one. Now he can compare the actual before image with the final arrangement and explain the changes he made.

The next checklist places “capture starting layout” immediately before “sort”. Its order has a reason, not merely a tidy appearance. When planning a learning record, ask which information a later action will destroy or alter. Preserve that information while it is still available.

P77: Take the Starting Photograph Before Sorting

Identify the dependency

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