the rule as stated, together with the criteria for deciding whether something is a “legitimate” exception, is the actual rule.
The approach I describe above merely consists of making this fact explicit.
This would be true were it not for your meta-rule. But the criteria for deciding whether something is a legitimate exception may be hazy and intuitive, and not prone to being stated in a simple form. This doesn’t mean that the criteria are bad though.
For example, I wouldn’t dream of formulating a rule about cookies that covered the case “you can eat them if they’re the best in the state”, but I also wouldn’t say that just because someone is trying to avoid eating cookies means they can’t eat the best-in-state cookies. It’s a judgement call. If you expect your judgement to be impaired enough that following rigid explicitly stated rules will be better than making judgement calls, then OK, but it is far from obvious that this is true for most people.
For example, I wouldn’t dream of formulating a rule about cookies that covered the case “you can eat them if they’re the best in the state”
Why?
This seems like a case that is entirely amenable to formalization (and without any great difficulty, either).
If you expect your judgement to be impaired enough that following rigid explicitly stated rules will be better than making judgement calls
“Judgment calls” are not irreducible.
One of the great insights that comes from the informal canon of best practices for GMing TTRPGs (e.g.) is that “rules” and “judgment calls” need not be contrasted with each other; on the contrary, the former can, and often does, assist and improve the latter. In other words, it’s not that following explicitly stated rules is better than making judgment calls, but rather that following explicitly stated rules is how you do better at making judgment calls.
This would be true were it not for your meta-rule. But the criteria for deciding whether something is a legitimate exception may be hazy and intuitive, and not prone to being stated in a simple form. This doesn’t mean that the criteria are bad though.
For example, I wouldn’t dream of formulating a rule about cookies that covered the case “you can eat them if they’re the best in the state”, but I also wouldn’t say that just because someone is trying to avoid eating cookies means they can’t eat the best-in-state cookies. It’s a judgement call. If you expect your judgement to be impaired enough that following rigid explicitly stated rules will be better than making judgement calls, then OK, but it is far from obvious that this is true for most people.
Why?
This seems like a case that is entirely amenable to formalization (and without any great difficulty, either).
“Judgment calls” are not irreducible.
One of the great insights that comes from the informal canon of best practices for GMing TTRPGs (e.g.) is that “rules” and “judgment calls” need not be contrasted with each other; on the contrary, the former can, and often does, assist and improve the latter. In other words, it’s not that following explicitly stated rules is better than making judgment calls, but rather that following explicitly stated rules is how you do better at making judgment calls.