Filtered dossier

Adept

Clearance level 2.

  • 12 / 12
  • No visual on file
    Negotiation Frames Entry #0344

    Why an expiring offer is a test of your alternatives

    A deadline attached to an offer rarely reflects an external constraint. It measures whether you have somewhere else to go, and it does so cheaply.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0344

    A deadline is cheap to impose and expensive to justify. The reaction it produces is what it was for.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Negotiation Frames Entry #0342

    Why questions extract more than arguments

    A position is a single point. The interests behind it are many, and only one of these can be discovered by asking, because arguing addresses the point instead.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0342

    Arguments contest a position. Questions decompose it, and only the components can be traded.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Negotiation Frames Entry #0339

    The reason a walk-away must be credible to work

    A threat changes behaviour only if the other side believes you would carry it out. Credibility comes from your position, not from the firmness of your voice.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0339

    A threat is priced by the listener’s estimate of your alternatives, not by your confidence in delivering it.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Narrative Structure Entry #0541

    The reason a chronology is rarely the best order

    Events happened in one order. They become interesting in another, because interest depends on what the audience already knows and time does not track that.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0541

    Chronology orders events by cause. Attention orders them by consequence, and the audience only has access to the second.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Narrative Structure Entry #0539

    The reason a brand story fails without a conflict

    Narrative comprehension is triggered by a departure from the expected. A description in which nothing goes wrong is processed as information, not as a story.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0539

    A story is the account of something that departed from the expected. Without the departure there is only a description.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Naming & Sound Entry #0569

    Why the length of a name predicts its abbreviation

    Frequently used expressions are shortened until effort matches use. A long name that people say often will not stay long, whoever owns the trademark.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0569

    Names are not shortened by carelessness. They are shortened until their length matches how much information they carry.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Naming & Sound Entry #0567

    Why a name with a double meaning is a liability

    Both senses of an ambiguous word activate before either is suppressed. The unwanted one is present in every reader for a moment, and context decides which survives.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0567

    Context suppresses the unwanted sense, but only where context exists. Names travel to places that have none.

    Open file
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    Naming & Sound Entry #0566

    The reason internal codenames leak into the market

    A working name is used thousands of times before the official one exists. By launch it is the shorter, older and more practised word, and practice wins.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0566

    The official name is chosen once. The codename is chosen thousands of times, and repetition decides which is retrieved.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Naming & Sound Entry #0564

    The reason renaming rarely changes perception alone

    A name is a pointer to accumulated experience. Change the pointer and the experience stays where it was, waiting to be reattached within weeks.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0564

    A rename does not move the associations. It gives them a short interval in which to find the new label.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Market Signals Entry #0416

    The reason a price cut can signal weakness

    Buyers do not read a lower price only as a better deal. They also ask what the seller learned that made the old price impossible to hold.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0416

    An unexplained reduction is not a better offer. It is the seller revising a claim they previously made in public.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Market Signals Entry #0414

    The reason a refund rate is published only when low

    Voluntary disclosure is not a sample of the facts. Where hiding a number is allowed, every published number is one that its owner preferred to publish.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0414

    Where silence is permitted, published figures are a sample of preferences, not a sample of the market.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0392

    Why a quota changes the composition of output

    A quota specifies a count. Whatever is not counted becomes the cheapest thing to sacrifice, so the total holds while the mix quietly deteriorates.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0392

    A quota does not raise output. It rearranges output around the one attribute that is being counted.

    Open file