Refactor with humility.
Improve structure while respecting behavior you may not yet understand.
Interpretation
Refactoring is a claim that structure can change without changing promised behavior. Humility makes that claim testable. Work in small steps, preserve evidence, and pause when the system contradicts your model. Surprise is information, not an obstacle to push aside.
Practice
- Build characterization coverage around the change.
- Keep transformations small and independently reversible.
- Ask domain experts about surprising branches.
Anti-pattern
Combining a broad cleanup with new behavior and calling it refactoring.