diff --git a/docs/architecture/README.md b/docs/architecture/README.md
index 5421b32d43..3160677a8f 100644
--- a/docs/architecture/README.md
+++ b/docs/architecture/README.md
@@ -1097,3 +1097,10 @@ Never build a rung before standing on the previous one.
     rules: never physical truths. A bare number floating outside a
     dimension is an abstraction with no authority here. Right itself is
     irrational: approximated to tolerance, never terminated.
+40. Truth has three stages, not two poles: FICTION → FACT → REALITY.
+    Fact is established by PROOF ON PAPER — math, whiteboards, design —
+    not by manufacture; the iPhone was fact years before it was real.
+    Reality is integration: used and consolidated until unremarkable.
+    The whiteboard is where facts are made because it is cheap, low-
+    resolution, and high-fidelity — wrong there costs an eraser.
+    Design before code, always: facts are cheapest at the drawing stage.