Working definition
Saboteur mechanics is the deliberate documentation inside Manual Of Me of how you sabotage yourself — the recipes that do not work — kept on purpose so you stop re-cooking them unconsciously.
How it works
You often document wins and hide misses. If you author a real Manual Of Me keeps two shelves: recipes that work, and saboteur mechanics — the failure recipes that reliably produce the outcome they say you do not want.
Each sabotage card is atomic: name the pattern, list the moves in order, note the need the pattern serves (status, safety, belonging). That is not moral failure; it is mechanics. Once the sequence is visible, you can interrupt it — often with a named Failure Strategy diagram — instead of debating character.
Distinction from Failure Strategy: Failure Strategy is the one failure code you diagram this week (deconstruct → select → segment → stack). Saboteur mechanics is the Manual habit of keeping every failure recipe you have met, dated and retrievable, like a cookbook that labels do not re-cook on the dishes that poisoned you before.
Distinction from Semantic self-sabotage: Atlas names neutral language drift; this doctrine is Yann’s operational shelf inside your Manual.
Signature
The image is the cookbook’s failed-recipe card — Yann on 2026-01-30: I identify the recipes that work — but unlike a normal cookbook, I also identify the recipes that don’t work, so I document the sabotage mechanics yourself. Naming the failure recipe is the only durable defence against re-cooking it.
The WOW on 2026-03-23: analysis→paralysis named as behavioural mechanics inside Manual territory — not pathology — so you can map the loop instead of performing shame.
Spatial split — wins only (hidden misses) versus do not re-cook (failure recipe kept on the Manual shelf). Your move: Your move this week.
More room passes mention this doctrine in replay narrative — search the Codex for Saboteur mechanics or start from the latest entry on Weekly Sessions.
Your move this week
This week’s micro-action (24–72 hours):
- Open your Manual (or one private page you treat as Manual).
- Write one sabotage-recipe card: title, three numbered steps, one line on the need it serves.
- Label it do not re-cook at the top — same seriousness as a win card.
- Link the card to one Failure Strategy you ran this month.
- Read the sequence aloud — if it sounds noble, rewrite until it sounds familiar.