Bray and Locke

Tim Bray’s Two Laws of Explanation are good reading. I’ve tried to ascribe to these myself wherever possible, and especially in my writing.
Of course these aren’t new formulations, as they’re really a modern version of John Locke’s tabula rasa concept. See for example Some Thoughts Concerning Education:

One of the aspects of this philosophical view was the concept of people being born as “tabula rasa”: a blank sheet, which was gradually filled in by experience. This may explain why Locke considered education an important activity that deserved careful consideration: education meant helping to fill that blank with knowledge and morals. Which in turn meant that the educator ought to take care to further such knowledge and morals, as would be useful both for the pupil himself and for the community as a whole.