Rule Number 2

Do the wise right thing, at the wise right time, with the wise right people, to progressively realize the Goal.

The first rule says what is the case. This one says what to do about it, and it is offered as a useful derivative rather than as a second authority — everything in it is already implied by Rule Number One, and it is written out because most people need the implication spelled into a sentence they can actually act on.

Four clauses, and each is doing distinct work. The wise right thing — not the right thing alone, which can be technically correct and still destructive, and not the wise thing alone, which can be shrewd and unprincipled; the two words together ask for an act that is both sound and good (Wise Right, Wisdom, Righteousness, Discernment). At the wise right time — because the same act is a gift at one hour and a harm at another, and most failures of judgment in a body are failures of timing rather than of content (Kairos, Just in time, Attend To The Most Important Things First). With the wise right people — because almost nothing worth doing is done alone, and who is at the table decides more about the outcome than the plan does (Cell, The First Few, Trust, Seats at the Table). To progressively realize the Goal — which supplies the why, and without which the first three clauses are merely a well-mannered way of doing anything at all (The Goal, Throughput, Progressive canonization).

Progressively is the word that keeps the rule livable. Nothing here asks for the whole thing at once, or for an act to be final, or for a person to be finished before they begin. It asks for a next move in the right direction, and then another — which is the same gradient every other part of the canon reads by (The Living Gradient, Continuous Improvement, The compass question).

Its intended use is small and constant rather than ceremonial. It is short enough to hold at the moment of a decision, which is the only moment a rule is any use, and it is the shape behind the Game's ordinary weekly question: what is the wise right next thing, for us, now (The Turn, Choose a Quest, Spontaneous Wise Right Action).

Also called: the derivative rule · do the wise right thing Stands on: Rule Number One · The Goal · Wise Right · Discernment Opens onto: Spontaneous Wise Right Action · Righteousness · Kairos · The Rules of The Game · The compass question · Continuous Improvement · Seats at the Table · The Turn · Throughput · The Living Gradient In play: the table — the sentence to hold at the moment a real choice is in front of a body Sources: LIØNSBERG Wiki Books/The LIØNSBERG Rules/Rule Number 2.md (states: Useful Derivative Rules; four lines) · the same book's Rule Number One (states: The One Meta Rule) · lionsberg.wiki: The LIØNSBERG Rules Open: The book is headed Useful Derivative Rules in the plural and holds exactly one. · Wise right is used throughout the corpus as though settled; the Field carries it under three overlapping pages and none supersedes the others in writing.