Filtered dossier

signalling

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    Naming & Sound Entry #0559

    Why founder surnames signal responsibility

    A surname on a sign means a person stands behind it. The claim is implicit: if this goes wrong, there is a name to look up.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0559

    A surname is a bond. The founder cannot walk away from a firm that carries their name without walking away from their own reputation.

    Open file
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    Market Signals Entry #0407

    Why a founder’s own money changes investor behaviour

    Retained personal exposure is readable in a way that a projection is not. It reports what the founder believes, which is separate from whether they are right.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0407

    Exposure reports belief, not correctness. It is costly to fake and silent about whether the belief is right.

    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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    Market Signals Entry #0402

    The reason a degree signals more than it teaches

    Part of a qualification’s value comes from what finishing it proves about the person, rather than from what the person learned inside it.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0402

    A credential can be worth paying for even where the teaching is not, provided it is hard to obtain.

    Open file
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    Market Signals Entry #0401

    Why a costly gesture carries information a cheap one cannot

    A claim anyone could make carries no information. A gesture that would hurt to fake carries some, which is why expense so often stands in for proof.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0401

    Information travels on cost. A signal that is cheap for a liar tells you nothing at all.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Market Signals Entry #0402

    The reason a degree signals more than it teaches

    Part of a qualification’s value comes from what finishing it proves about the person, rather than from what the person learned inside it.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0402

    A credential can be worth paying for even where the teaching is not, provided it is hard to obtain.

    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
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    Market Signals Entry #0413

    Why silence from a large company is a signal

    An organisation with a communications department can always issue a denial. When it issues nothing instead, the absence carries information a denial would not.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0413

    A denial is cheap for those who can safely deny. Silence is what remains when the cheap option is unavailable.

    Open file
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    Brand Language Entry #0488

    Why premium never appears in genuinely premium marketing

    Status cannot be asserted by its holder without loss. Saying premium is a bid for the category; belonging to it is shown by not needing to bid.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0488

    The word premium is not a description of a tier. It is a membership application, and members do not apply.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0396

    Why volunteers outperform paid workers on some tasks

    Payment does not add to an existing reason for doing something. It can replace it, and the replacement is often smaller than what it displaced.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0396

    A small payment does not sit alongside the original reason for doing something. It replaces it, and then has to compete on its own terms.

    Open file