Reliability and stability >>>>> performance and speed.
memery should never crash, and should always be able to restart and/or repair herself.
Presume that the users will abuse, that the computer is crap and the programmers are idiots, and program thereafter. Nothing is safe, nothing is certain. Always prepare for the worst.
Everything (or as close as possible) should be reloadable and switchable during runtime.
Never use except: pass except for extremely short-term debug sessions. OR MEMERY WILL STAB A BIG FUCKING HOLE IN YOU. Hrrm. except: [dostuff] can be used if you actually do something useful with it.
Everything should be in English, except personality-related things (ie. plugins).
The admin functions should be especially stable, unless memery has enough autonomy to do self-diagnostics of herself.