Lexicon · term
Below-threshold design
Granting autonomous latitude only where the work requires it, while keeping initiation, persistence, tool access, reach, and resistance to interruption as narrow as the task allows. A below-threshold system may still act within a human-chosen course.
Used in
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The agency threshold
Action makes an actor. Choice is where autonomy begins.
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The crutch effect
Help that bypasses the struggle shows up as improvement now and damage later, and only the later measurement is honest
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The competence ceiling
Substitution does not require the machine to be wrong, and being right is the mechanism
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Below-threshold design
Autonomy is a capability to grant only where the work needs it