validity-floors

Separate the hard constraints that decide whether an option is admissible at all from the soft criteria that rank the admissible ones — then gate before you rank, so a beautiful invalid choice cannot outscore a plain valid one. Use this whenever you are about to pick, shortlist, or recommend from a set: choosing a library or vendor, triaging bugs to fix, screening candidates, selecting a design, or scoring alternatives against a rubric. Also use it when a scoring scheme deducts points for a violation that should have been disqualifying, when someone asks for N options and only two clear the bar, or when you notice a favourite you are about to justify. Not for running the head-to-head comparison once the admissible set exists (that is blind-evaluation), not for wording the final claim (falsifiable-claims), and not for checking your own work is finished (superpowers:verification-before-completion).