The before picture, machine-checked

Before you start

This is the mindset lab — no terminal, no tooling, just the one intellectual move the whole program exists to make routine. You will write the one-page legacy-vs-engineered analysis of a real control you own, in the exact fixed shape the capstone re-opens at the end of the program. Three files are in your workspace: a conforming exemplar (the laptop-encryption worked example from §5.1 — the claim thread you will meet again in almost every module), a legacy-only counterexample, and your own template. The "Run validator" button runs the module's own structural rubric check — the same logic this curriculum's CI runs against its own lab — and its verdict is earned, not scripted: it really rejects, then really accepts, whatever your document currently says. One honesty note: the check is structural. Passing it is the floor, not the grade — the honest sentences are yours to write.