Great article. This is really about a mental shift. When given a problem like "dormant customers should be charged", it's natural to model the problem as verbs:

Great article. This is really about a mental shift. When given a problem like "dormant customers should be charged", it's natural to model the problem as verbs: "find the dormant customers and charge them". However, that description relies on implicit state: it assumes a world where all dormant customers have not been charged. As we all know, relying on hidden implicit state is the source of all evil. When you describe your problem using verbs, you are essentially modeling it in terms of a diff between how the world is and how you want it to be. But that diff is only correct if you have a perfectly correct description of how the world currently is. It's better to take a step back and think of your problem purely in terms of the world you want to end up in as a result: "all dormant customers have been charged". Framing it that way makes questions like "which dormant customers have already been charged?" more obvious to consider.