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Adept

Clearance level 2.

  • 12 / 12
  • No visual on file
    Cognitive Bias Entry #0104

    The opinion you defend hardest is the one you understood least

    The loudest defence usually protects the thinnest reasoning. Volume compensates for a foundation the speaker has never actually inspected.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0104

    Confidence is not compressed knowledge. A thin model has fewer visible gaps than a detailed one, so it is easier to defend loudly.

    Open file
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    Framing Effects Entry #0506

    The reason time framing changes charitable giving

    Two appeals for one cause. The one that asks about time before it asks about money collects more money, and the money request comes second.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0506

    The first unit named sets the terms of the whole request. Time invites meaning; money invites arithmetic.

    Open file
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    Brand Language Entry #0483

    The reason a company says community and means customers

    Communal language makes cost-benefit arithmetic feel out of place. The buyer keeps paying an exchange price under a set of non-exchange manners.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0483

    Communal language suspends the ledger. The obligations stay commercial; only the accounting manners change.

    Open file
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    Market Signals Entry #0408

    The reason a long queue is an advertisement

    An advertisement is a claim by the seller. A queue is a demonstration by people with nothing to gain from making it, which is why it is read differently.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0408

    Credibility depends on who pays for the message. A queue is unpaid testimony about arrivals, not a report on the meal.

    Open file
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    Incentive Design Entry #0377

    The reason a bonus for lines of code produces long code

    Measure what you want and you will get exactly that — the metric, not the quality the metric was supposed to represent.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0377

    Reward defines the output. The metric does not fail because people cheat; it fails because people succeed at optimising exactly what was measured.

    Open file
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    Negotiation Frames Entry #0333

    The reason concessions should shrink, not hold

    A sequence of equal concessions implies more are available. A sequence of diminishing ones traces a curve towards a limit the other side can extrapolate.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0333

    The pattern is the message. Equal steps promise another; shrinking steps describe a limit before it is reached.

    Open file
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    Habit Loops Entry #0306

    The reason phone use rises when the phone is face down

    Turning the screen away removes the glance and leaves the reaching. What was a two-second look becomes a pick-up, and a pick-up rarely ends in two seconds.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0306

    Visibility and availability are different levers. Removing the glance does not remove the reach; it lengthens it.

    Open file
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    Choice Design Entry #0233

    The reason a search box changes what people want

    Autocomplete offers a finished question before the user has finished asking one. The suggestion is usually accepted, and it was not the original query.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0233

    Suggestion shapes the question. What is easy to ask becomes what gets asked, and the alternative results are never observed.

    Open file
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    Paradox & Proof Entry #0158

    The reason more information can lower accuracy

    Adding weakly relevant detail to a judgement raises confidence and often leaves accuracy flat or worse. The extra material dilutes the signal it was meant to sharpen.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0158

    Non-diagnostic detail is averaged in rather than ignored. Confidence tracks volume of information; accuracy tracks its quality.

    Open file
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    Cognitive Bias Entry #0102

    The reason yesterday’s price feels like the right price

    A number you saw once becomes the standard against which every later number is judged, even when you cannot remember where the first one came from.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0102

    The last price paid is not evidence of the right price. It is the starting point of a comparison that was never asked for.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Cognitive Bias Entry #0106

    The reason near-misses feel like progress

    An outcome that almost succeeded is registered as skill developing rather than as a loss. In a chance process there is no such thing as almost.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0106

    Proximity is only informative where skill operates. In a chance process a near-miss is a loss wearing the costume of progress.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Rhetoric & Omission Entry #0581

    The reason a concession makes the following claim stronger

    In a sentence built around but, the clause after the conjunction carries the argument. The concession before it supplies balance and costs almost nothing.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0581

    But is not a balance; it is a hinge. Everything before it is conceded and everything after it is asserted.

    Open file