Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Every decision framework needs five explicit components
For each decision framework you build, explicitly include five components: evaluation criteria, sequence of evaluation, time budget, kill conditions (automatic disqualifiers), and decision rights (who decides, who is consulted).
Place pre-flight checks at the prep/execution boundary…
Position pre-flight checks at the boundary between preparation and execution—after work is ready but before it begins—to catch errors when correction cost is minimal and propagation has not started.
Add verification checkpoints at every coupling point where…
Insert independent verification checkpoints at every coupling point where one process automatically consumes another's output without review to interrupt error cascade chains before they amplify.
Design three operating modes for every important process
For every important recurring process, design three explicit operating modes—full, reduced, and minimal—where each preserves progressively less fidelity but never loses continuity.
Define triggers for mode transitions in both directions…
Define transition triggers for each operating mode that specify when to shift from full to reduced, reduced to minimal, and—critically—from degraded back to full operation.
Document five recovery components for every important…
For every important process, document five components of recovery: failure mode specification, detection trigger, ordered recovery steps, recovery time target, and verification check.
Detect errors at the earliest catchable point — correction…
Place error detection checkpoints at the earliest point in a process where the error can first be caught, because correction cost increases exponentially with propagation distance downstream.
Three-tier error budgets
Define error budget thresholds in three tiers—green (within budget, no action), yellow (approaching limits, investigate), red (exceeded, halt and redesign)—with pre-committed responses for each zone.
Before modifying processes, surface their embedded schemas…
When modifying organizational processes, surface embedded schemas first to distinguish processes encoding hard-won lessons (whose removal reintroduces risk) from processes encoding obsolete assumptions (whose removal reduces waste).