Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
When performance is stable with no bottleneck, stop…
When measurement data shows stable satisfactory performance with no identifiable bottleneck, redirect optimization effort to a different system rather than continuing to optimize the current one.
Calculate optimization breakeven time — if payback exceeds…
When evaluating whether to optimize an existing system, calculate breakeven time by dividing optimization effort by weekly time savings—if payback exceeds the system's expected remaining lifespan, redirect effort to the actual constraint instead.
Strengthen virtuous loops through one lever at a time
Strengthen a reinforcing loop you want to amplify by reducing friction at any node, increasing gain at a single node, or shortening cycle time, implementing one intervention per loop rather than attempting simultaneous multi-variable changes.
Only optimize the constraint — verify that improving…
Before attempting to improve a feedback loop component, verify it is actually the constraint by measuring whether improvements there would increase total system throughput, as optimizing non-constraints produces local gains without system-level improvement.