Elon Musk has a simple rule. If you’re not deleting at least 10% of your requirements, you didn’t cut enough.
It sounds aggressive, but he’s right. Most requirements are wrong because they are inherited, assumed, or added “just in case.” Over time they pile up until nobody knows what actually matters, so the only way forward is to cut and see what breaks.
That works, but it reveals a deeper problem. Companies are not failing to cut. They are failing to know what they’re allowed to cut.
So everything stays, and as it grows, clarity disappears.
Not because it’s all necessary, but because nothing feels safe to remove. Every requirement might matter. Every detail might be important. Without a clear boundary, there is no way to tell the difference between what drives the outcome and what simply surrounds it.
A Restaurant Already Knows What Matters
You can see the difference in a restaurant.
When you place an order, you don’t describe the cooking process or explain how the dish should be made. You say what you want: ribeye, medium-rare, fries, sauce on the side. The kitchen figures out the rest.
That order works because it is already clear about what matters. It defines the outcome without carrying unnecessary detail, so there is nothing to debate and nothing to interpret.
You Can Feel a Bad Specification Instantly
Now imagine the same order written the way most companies write specifications.
“I’d like a steak, medium-rare but not too red, slightly pink, fries but not too crispy, sauce on the side but warm, unless that makes it soggy.”
The problem is obvious. It is not just longer, it is confused. It introduces contradictions, hedges, and conditions that don’t change the outcome but make execution harder.
That is what most specifications become. Not because people are careless, but because they are trying to reduce risk. They add detail to feel safe, but in doing so they remove clarity.
Why Cutting Works (And Why It’s Not Enough)
This is why Musk’s rule works. When you don’t know what matters, removing things is the only way to find out. If the steak still arrives correctly without a requirement, that requirement was never needed.
But in a restaurant, you don’t need that rule. Nobody says “delete 10% of the order” because the structure already makes it obvious what belongs and what doesn’t.
A Seam Makes the Cut Obvious
In Clarity, that structure is called a seam.
A seam defines what must happen and how success is measured. In the restaurant, it might be this: serve a hot, medium-rare steak within 20 minutes, with at least 80% of guests rating it four stars or above.
Once that is clear, every requirement can be tested against it. If it doesn’t affect time, temperature, or guest satisfaction, it doesn’t belong in the order.
“Don’t overcook it” goes. “Make it look premium” goes. Anything that does not move the outcome is removed.
Two Ways to Reach the Same Place
Musk cuts to discover clarity because the system doesn’t provide it. Clarity defines it first, so the cut becomes obvious.
Both approaches remove the same things, but one relies on force while the other relies on structure.
Why This Breaks at Scale
Most companies try to improve specifications by adding more detail, more edge cases, and more safeguards. This increases the distance between what is written and what actually matters.
In a restaurant, that would be like expanding the order instead of refining it, adding instructions the kitchen doesn’t need and conditions that don’t change the result. Execution slows, but the dish doesn’t improve.
Systems that depend on interpretation do not scale. AI does not interpret intent. It executes what is written.
Clarity Removes the Need to Guess
That is why restaurant orders feel natural. The system forces clarity by keeping the focus on the outcome, so anything unnecessary falls away before it reaches the kitchen.
Companies don’t have that system, so they rely on effort instead. More thinking, more writing, more alignment meetings, all trying to compensate for something that structure should have solved.
It doesn’t work.
A specification is not finished when everything is included. It is finished when everything unnecessary has been removed.