Scientific Definition
A phrase that ends thought rather than advancing it.
Plain-English Definition
A phrase that ends thought rather than advancing it.
Feynman Explanation
'It is what it is.' (No, it's whatever we make it.)
Core Principle
A phrase that ends thought rather than advancing it.
Mechanisms
A phrase that ends thought rather than advancing it.
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
'It is what it is.' (No, it's whatever we make it.)
Examples
- 'That's just how things are done here.'
- Innovation stalls one cliché at a time.
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Famous Experiments
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Design Principles
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Measurement Approaches
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Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
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Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Using a word with two meanings as if it meant one.
Words chosen to bias the audience toward a conclusion.
A question with a built-in unproven assumption.
Attacking the person rather than the argument.
If A then B; B happened; therefore A.
A single story used as proof of a general claim.
It's true because authority says so.
Common sense says so, therefore it's true.
Believing something is true because of the consequences of its truth.
Substituting feeling for argument.
Using fear instead of evidence.
Claiming something is true because it hasn't been proven false (or vice versa).