Scientific Definition
Designing systems for the lowest-capability user produces resilience for everyone.
Plain-English Definition
Designing systems for the lowest-capability user produces resilience for everyone.
Feynman Explanation
If your system requires geniuses, it will fail with mortals.
Core Principle
Designing systems for the lowest-capability user produces resilience for everyone.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Designing systems for the lowest-capability user produces resilience for everyone.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Robust org systems work with average performers, not just stars.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
If your system requires geniuses, it will fail with mortals.
Examples
- Curb cuts: built for wheelchairs, used by parents, delivery workers, travelers.
- Robust org systems work with average performers, not just stars.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Stress-test processes against the median user, not the ideal one.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Stress-test processes against the median user, not the ideal one.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Combining substances to create a new material stronger than its parts.
A single constraint limits the throughput of an entire system.
A system's throughput is constrained by its single slowest step.
Small visible disorders signal that bigger ones will be tolerated.
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
A substance that speeds up a reaction without being consumed.
Nonlinear systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions.
Inputs combine under conditions to produce new outputs — sometimes irreversibly.
Software architecture mirrors org structure.
Working together has a cost that scales with the number of people.
The threshold at which a system becomes self-sustaining.