How to Run the McPhetridge Pruning Method on Your Own Work A short, practical guide

What this is The McPhetridge Pruning Method is a simple, repeatable way to keep your thinking honest under pressure. It treats every idea — model, framework, explanation, policy, claim — as a disposable candidate. You generate. You test under real load. You prune what fails. You keep what survives and still does useful work. This is not a theory you adopt. It is a tool you run on your own work. If you want a picture: it’s slime-mold thinking made explicit. Send out tendrils → feel what collapses → withdraw from dead ends → reinforce what holds → remember the failures in the structure → repeat.