Skip to the archive contents
Archive status:
Open
Declassified
1,015 / 10,000
Clearance
Visitor
1,015 entries declassified
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
12 / 12
-
No visual on file
Naming & Sound
Entry #0565
An unfamiliar name cannot be read as ordinary, and the effort of processing it gets attributed to the product rather than to the word.
The hidden part
#0565
An unfamiliar name is processed slowly, and the slowness is credited to the product. The buyer reports texture and means orthography.
-
No visual on file
Naming & Sound
Entry #0563
A digit reads as a specification rather than a description. It implies a series, a measurement and someone who knows which one they need.
The hidden part
#0563
A digit does not describe a product. It asserts that a scale exists, and buyers who accept the scale stop evaluating the object.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0425
Complaining costs time and social exposure. Most dissatisfaction is expressed by leaving quietly, which produces no record anywhere.
The hidden part
#0425
A complaint log samples willingness to complain, not dissatisfaction. Where leaving is easy, the unhappiest customers are the quietest ones.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0424
Where buyers can inspect, a badge adds nothing. Its value comes entirely from the inspection it stands in for, and rises as inspection gets harder.
The hidden part
#0424
A badge is worth exactly what the inspection it replaces would have been worth. Where the buyer could just look, it is worth nothing.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0423
A list does not only record demand. It publishes a number that other buyers use as evidence, and the evidence then produces more demand.
The hidden part
#0423
A published waiting list stops measuring demand and starts causing it. The final number contains its own advertisement.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0422
Terms are not neutral packaging around a price. They are a filter, and the customers they attract differ from the ones they deter.
The hidden part
#0422
Terms sort customers before they sort transactions. A returns policy is a selection instrument filed in the wrong department.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0421
A logo beside a trusted institution makes no claim that could be checked. It relies on a transfer that happens before checking begins.
The hidden part
#0421
Sponsorship makes no checkable claim. It buys a pairing, and the pairing is processed as a property of whoever paid for it.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0420
The statement arrives with the news, and the market ignores it. What an informed party does is treated as evidence; what they say is not.
The hidden part
#0420
A departure is a costly action by the best-informed party. The statement attached to it is free, and free statements are filtered out on arrival.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0419
A quote persuades in proportion to what it would cost to fabricate. Remove traceability and the fabrication cost falls to nothing.
The hidden part
#0419
A testimonial is worth what it would cost to fake. An initial and a job title cost nothing, whatever the honest reason for using them.
-
No visual on file
Market Signals
Entry #0418
A headcount reports a decision already taken and possibly regretted. The rate of change reports what the firm believes about the next few quarters.
The hidden part
#0418
Headcount records what a firm already decided. Hiring rate records what it currently believes, and only one of the two is published.
-
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.
-
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.
No files under that classification
Nothing in this pillar has been declassified on this page yet. Try another pillar.