The real reason PRDs and ADRs don't survive contact with your team (opens in new tab)

It's not a culture problem. It's a timing problem. I've led engineering teams at four of Brazil's largest financial institutions — environments where decision traceability isn't optional. Audits require architectural rationale. Incidents demand post-mortems that explain not just what broke, but why the system was designed the way it was. Onboarding a new engineer means they need to understand decisions made months before they joined. High-stakes environments. High documentation standards. And...