"매 know your why before you optimize your how.". 매 Aristotle 의 telos 부터 매 Sinek 의 Start with Why, 매 Frankl 의 meaning therapy 까지 — 매 purpose = 매 why an entity (person, system, product) exists. 매 2026 software/AI 에서 매 purpose 명시는 매 alignment, scope creep 회피, 매 LLM agent goal-setting 의 foundation.
매 핵심
매 4 levels of purpose
Existential (인간): 매 Frankl — 매 meaning vs pleasure vs power.
Organizational: 매 mission statement — 매 "why does this company exist?".
Product: 매 user job-to-be-done (Christensen) — 매 "what hire is this product made for?".
System/Code: 매 module purpose — 매 "what 1 thing does this module own?".
매 purpose articulation patterns
Sinek's Golden Circle: WHY → HOW → WHAT.
JTBD: "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]".
Code: 매 module 의 1-sentence purpose 가 unclear 면 — split or rename.
LLM agent: 매 system prompt 의 첫 줄은 purpose — 매 alignment anchor.
Career: 매 ikigai (것 + 잘 + need + paid).
Product: 매 JTBD interview → feature prioritization.
💻 패턴
Pattern 1: Module-level purpose docstring
"""
auth/jwt.py
PURPOSE: 매 issue and verify JWT tokens for our API authentication.
INVARIANTS:
- Tokens always include `iss` claim.
- Verification rejects tokens with `alg=none`.
NON-GOALS:
- Session storage (see auth/session.py).
- Refresh-token rotation (see auth/refresh.py).
"""
Pattern 2: LLM agent system prompt
SYSTEM="""You are a code-review assistant.
PURPOSE: 매 surface non-obvious bugs, security issues, and style violations
in the user's pull request, prioritized by severity.
NON-GOALS:
- Generating new code (the user does that).
- Auto-fixing without confirmation.
CONSTRAINTS:
- Always cite file:line for every claim.
- Refuse to comment on out-of-scope files.
"""
Pattern 3: JTBD interview template
job_to_be_done:situation:"When I'm onboarding a new team member"motivation:"I want a single doc with their day-1 setup"outcome:"so they can ship a real PR by end of week 1"current_alternatives:[README, Notion page, ad-hoc Slack DMs]hire_criteria:[single-source, executable, verified]
Pattern 4: OKR framing
objective:"매 Make AI Act compliance trivial for EU SMBs"key_results:- "Onboard 100 SMBs by Q3"- "Reduce time-to-compliance from 30d → 5d"- "NPS ≥ 50"
Pattern 5: Purpose-test for scope creep
defis_in_scope(feature,module_purpose)->bool:"""매 ask: 'does this feature serve the module's stated purpose?'"""# 매 if no, push to a different module or rejectreturnfeature.advances(module_purpose)
Pattern 6: 5-Whys to surface purpose
Q: Why are we building this dashboard?
A: To show metrics.
Q: Why?
A: So managers can see team health.
Q: Why?
A: So they can intervene early.
Q: Why?
A: To prevent burnout & attrition.
Q: Why?
A: Because attrition costs $200K/engineer.
→ 매 PURPOSE: "매 reduce attrition cost via early-burnout intervention".
매 결정 기준
상황
Tool
매 module/file design
1-sentence purpose docstring
매 LLM agent design
Purpose + non-goals + constraints in system prompt
Antigravity Agent
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