Docs-only release capturing the README overhaul that became the /awesome-readme exemplar: hero banner, 8 live badges, the self-distillation story told with receipts, two mermaid diagrams, the 16 Laws linked table, the full honest making-of. Includes the VS16 emoji-anchor fix — the lesson that founded /awesome-readme's iron rule: never guess what you can fetch. Book text and skill are untouched; all 21 references still machine-verified in CI.