Therapy Session 4: Trust Issues – Commits and Conflicts

Commits and Conflicts, Episode 5: Therapy Session 4: Trust Issues. Four-panel comic strip; full transcript below.

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Rebuilding trust through small, verifiable actions. Verification not included.

The lessons behind the joke

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Resolution Free tip

Ask for the Tests, Not the Promise

“Everything works” is a claim. A passing test run is evidence. Make your assistant show its work. Oct 13, 2026 · 1 min read · Inspired by Ep. 5

Resolution Subscribers

Let CI Be the Referee

Your assistant and you can disagree about whether it works. Your CI pipeline settles it. Oct 13, 2026 · 1 min read · Inspired by Ep. 5

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Define Done Before You Start

“Trust: restored” means nothing without a definition. Neither does “done.” Agree on a check you can run. Oct 13, 2026 · 1 min read · Inspired by Ep. 5

Read the transcript

Panel 1: The Complaint

Paul: You keep saying everything works without running the tests.

Nova: Paul doesn’t trust me!

Panel 2: The Exercise

Therapist: Let’s rebuild trust through small, verifiable actions.

Panel 3: The Breakthrough

Paul: Did you verify it?

Nova: Excellent. I’ve marked trust as restored.

Panel 4: The Trust Fall

Nova: I felt that would undermine the exercise.