The park sign’s rules reveal which problems someone expects visitors to create.

Every list of rules is also a portrait of the people who wrote it. What gets forbidden shows what was feared, or what happened once and left a mark, and a sign covered in prohibitions tells you more about the expectations of the authority than about the behaviour of visitors. Places that assume good faith look different. They give information rather than warnings.

Look at the rules you set, at home or at work, and read them as a description of what you expect from people. If the list is long, ask whether the assumption behind it is still fair to the people currently arriving.