“Orthogonal work” means changes that are unrelated to the task at hand — they sit on a different axis from what you were asked to do.
Example
If you are asked to fix a bug in auth, then:
- On-axis (do it): the bug fix itself, plus tests for that fix.
- Orthogonal (do not do it): renaming variables in the same file, “cleaning up” a nearby function, updating comments you noticed were stale, deleting code that looks unused, reformatting imports.
Why avoid it
The orthogonal changes might be improvements, but they:
- Bloat the diff and make review harder.
- Mix concerns — if the bug fix needs to be reverted, the unrelated cleanup goes with it.
- Expand the blast radius of a change beyond what was reviewed for.
Rule of thumb
Surgical precision: touch only what the task requires. Flag the other stuff separately (e.g. as a follow-up task or a spawned chore) rather than bundling it in.