negative-contrastive-framing

# Negative Contrastive Framing

## Table of Contents
- [Purpose](#purpose)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [What Is It](#what-is-it)
- [Workflow](#workflow)
- [Common Patterns](#common-patterns)
- [Guardrails](#guardrails)
- [Quick Reference](#quick-reference)

## Purpose

Define concepts, quality criteria, and boundaries by showing what they're NOT—using anti-goals, near-miss examples, and failure patterns to create crisp decision criteria where positive definitions alone are ambiguous.

## When to Use

**Clarifying Fuzzy Boundaries:**
- Positive definition exists but edges are unclear
- Multiple interpretations cause confusion
- Team debates what "counts" as meeting criteria
- Need to distinguish similar concepts

**Teaching & Communication:**
- Explaining concepts to learners who need counterexamples
- Training teams to recognize anti-patterns
- Creating style guides with do's and don'ts
- Onboarding with common mistake prevention

**Setting Standards:**
- Defining code quality (show bad patterns)
- Establishing design principles (show violations)
- Creating evaluation rubrics (clarify failure modes)
- Building decision criteria (identify disqualifiers)

**Preventing Errors:**
- Near-miss incidents revealing risk patterns
- Common mistakes that need explicit guards
- Edge cases that almost pass but shouldn't
- Subtle failures that look like successes

## What Is It

Negative contrastive framing defines something by showing what it's NOT:

**Types of Negative Examples:**
1. **Anti-goals:** Opposite of desired outcome ("not slow" → define fast)
2. **Near-misses:** Examples that almost qualify but fail on key dimension
3. **Failure patterns:** Common mistakes that violate criteria
4. **Boundary cases:** Edge examples clarifying where line is drawn

**Example:**
Defining "good UX":
- **Positive:** "Intuitive, efficient, delightful"
- **Negative contrast:**
  - ❌ Near-miss: Fast but confusing (speed without clarity)
  - ❌ Anti-pattern: Dark patterns (manipulative desi