Skip to the archive contents
Archive status:
Open
Declassified
1,042 / 10,000
Clearance
Visitor
1,042 entries declassified
All 12
Logic 0
Mechanics 0
Numbers 0
Words 0
Bias 0
Decisions 0
Paradox 0
Attention 0
Social Proof 0
Choice 0
Persuasion 0
Platforms 0
Habit 5
Negotiation 0
Pricing 0
Incentives 5
Signals 1
Statistics 0
Scarcity 0
Brand 0
Framing 1
Narrative 0
Naming 0
Rhetoric 0
Rewards 0
Progress 0
Competition 0
Engagement 0
Achievements 0
Priming 0
Emotions 0
Attention Cap. 0
Recall 0
Fatigue 0
Tokenomics 0
Trust 0
Yield 0
Governance 0
Markets 0
Color 0
Sound 0
Touch 0
Scent 0
Space 0
12 / 12
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0417
Giving away one layer of a stack lowers what anyone can charge for it. That is useful precisely when your revenue sits on a different layer.
The hidden part
#0417
Deciding which layer to give away is deciding which layer nobody can charge for. Firms commoditise next to their own margin, not away from it.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why open-sourcing a product is a competitive act
↻
No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0400
An incentive supplies a reason and overwrites the one already there. Withdrawing the payment does not reinstate what it replaced.
The hidden part
#0400
An incentive does not sit on top of the previous reason. It replaces it, and withdrawal leaves the replacement in place with the price set to zero.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why removing an incentive rarely restores the earlier behaviour
↻
No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0398
A deadline is met by narrowing the work, not by accelerating it. Delivery improves and the discarded scope leaves no record of having existed.
The hidden part
#0398
A deadline does not make work faster. It makes work smaller, and the discarded version never enters the record to be missed.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why deadlines improve output and lower ambition
↻
No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0397
A promotion is awarded for performance in one job and delivered as a different job. The evidence used to select is evidence about the role being left.
The hidden part
#0397
Promotion selects on evidence from the job being left. Nobody collected evidence about the job being entered, and the acceptance is not that evidence.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a promotion can be a demotion
↻
No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0394
A guarantee moves the cost of a bad outcome from one party to another. Both parties then face different prices for care, and both respond.
The hidden part
#0394
A guarantee does not remove the cost of a bad outcome. It reassigns it, and every party whose price of care changed will adjust.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why a strong guarantee shifts behaviour on both sides
↻
No visual on file
Incentive Design
Entry #0391
Who receives a payment and who keeps it are separate questions. Where supply cannot expand, the payment is absorbed into the price instead.
The hidden part
#0391
A subsidy is paid to whoever is named and kept by whoever holds the scarce side. Where supply cannot move, the price does.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a subsidy raises the price of the subsidised
↻
No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0325
A long routine is a chain of small links, and the first link is usually a physical object. Chains do not break where they are strongest.
The hidden part
#0325
The length of a routine measures how far it has been delegated to the room. Withdraw the room’s cue and the delegation has nothing to execute.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why removing one object can end a decade-old routine
↻
No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0323
The task did not get harder. The novelty that was doing the work in week one has decayed, and nothing automatic has yet arrived to replace it.
The hidden part
#0323
Week one is paid for by novelty and week two is not. The behaviour did not get harder; its funding source expired before the automatic one arrived.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why the second week is harder than the first
↻
No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0322
A routine with no defined end never registers as complete, so it accumulates no record of having been done and no boundary to be recalled from.
The hidden part
#0322
A behaviour with no ending produces no instances. Nothing was completed, so nothing was counted, and nothing repeats.
Reveal the hidden insight of The reason a habit needs a finishing signal
↻
No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0319
Visibility adds a reputational cost to stopping, which is why it works. It also converts one missed day from an event into the end of a record.
The hidden part
#0319
The counter buys adherence by making the stake grow. The same design settles the entire stake on one missed day.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why a public streak is stronger and more fragile
↻
No visual on file
Habit Loops
Entry #0317
A remembered episode is not the sum of its moments. It is reconstructed from a peak and an ending, which is why how something finished governs whether it repeats.
The hidden part
#0317
Adding an easy final stretch can make a harder session preferable. The summary is built from the end, not from the total.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why the last repetition is the one you remember
↻
No visual on file
Framing Effects
Entry #0525
Every description selects a level of detail, a boundary and a vocabulary. Choosing not to editorialise does not remove those choices, it conceals them.
The hidden part
#0525
Neutral prose still picks the subject, the verb and the boundary. It is the most effective frame because it offers nothing to disagree with.
Reveal the hidden insight of Why a neutral description is itself a frame
↻
No files under that classification
Nothing in this pillar has been declassified on this page yet. Try another pillar.
Back to top