Venue Intelligence

Kickstand

155 scripts became 13. $40/day became $39/month. A system that works without anyone thinking about it.

• 92% script reduction • 97% cost reduction • 48% health improvement

The Challenge

Kickstand had grown organically over time, accumulating technical debt: 155 active scripts, 30 TypeScript errors, and documentation scattered across multiple formats. The system worked but was becoming difficult to maintain and extend.

Initial assessment:

— 155 active scripts (many redundant or orphaned)
— 30 TypeScript errors blocking type safety
— Documentation inconsistency across README, CLAUDE.md, ARCHITECTURE.md
— Health score: 6.2/10

Applying the Subtractive Triad

This project was the first formal application of the Subtractive Triad framework: DRY → Rams → Heidegger.

The Three Levels:

Level 1: DRY (Implementation)
  → "Have I built this before?"
  → Action: Unify
  → Result: Consolidated 155 → 13 scripts

Level 2: Rams (Artifact)
  → "Does this earn its existence?"
  → Action: Remove
  → Result: Fixed 30 → 0 TypeScript errors

Level 3: Heidegger (System)
  → "Does this serve the whole?"
  → Action: Reconnect
  → Result: Unified documentation canon

Key insight:

"Creation is the discipline of removing what obscures. Each level of the triad subtracts differently—duplication, excess, disconnection—but all reveal the same truth."

Results

92%

Script reduction

155 → 13

100%

Type errors fixed

30 → 0

9.2

Health score

Up from 6.2

Validated outcomes:

✓ Removed 142 orphaned/redundant scripts
✓ TypeScript strict mode enabled with zero errors
✓ Documentation unified into canonical UNDERSTANDING.md format
✓ 48% health score improvement (6.2 → 9.2)

Cost Impact

$40/day

Before optimization

~$1,200/month projected

$39/mo

After optimization

97% reduction

Runaway API costs were consuming $40/day before the Subtractive Triad audit identified inefficient scraping patterns and duplicate data accumulation.

Root causes identified:

— 89% duplicate data (11,104 redundant records)
— Redundant API calls from orphaned scripts
— Missing deduplication in data pipeline

After optimization: same coverage of 100 venues, 4x daily monitoring, 97% lower cost.

Why This Validates the Triad

Kickstand was the first production application of the Subtractive Triad. The framework proved that systematic subtraction at three levels—implementation, artifact, system—yields compounding benefits.

The triad has since been formalized into the Kickstand Triad Audit experiment and documented in the CREATE SOMETHING canon.

Full experiment documentation available at createsomething.io.

Need a Codebase Audit?

The Subtractive Triad can be applied to any system: legacy codebases, overgrown projects, or architectural reviews.

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