Move guide
Repeating patterns
Recognize common repeating structures.
Choose a move in the practical Guide →Explore the moves and parts
- Fix That FeedsA hypothesis that symptom relief is weakening or replacing the capacity that would actually remove the symptom.
- Policy BoomerangA hypothesis that a corrective policy is changing behavior in ways that later defeat the correction.
- Snowball / FlywheelA hypothesis that accumulated success or decline is making each next turn easier in the same direction.
- Arms-Race MirrorA hypothesis that each actor's protective escalation is functioning as the other actor's trigger.
- Delayed ThermostatA hypothesis that a balancing response arrives late enough to create overshoot and oscillation.
- Feast-FamineA hypothesis that delayed replenishment and episodic use are alternating the system between excess and shortage.
- Ceiling AheadA hypothesis that growth is activating a limiting constraint that will plateau or reverse it.
- Commons DrainA hypothesis that locally reasonable use by many actors is depleting a shared stock nobody protects.
- Scoreboard HijackA hypothesis that proxy-directed behavior is improving the measure while the real mission outcome diverges.
- Goalpost DriftA hypothesis that pressure is being relieved by quietly lowering the standard, which weakens future correction.
- Queue SpiralA hypothesis that backlog is creating expediting, task-switching, or rework that further lowers throughput.
- Winner Feeds WinnerA hypothesis that current advantage is attracting exactly the resources needed to preserve that advantage.
- Activation GapA hypothesis that a desirable circuit is stopping before it crosses the threshold at which its own returns would sustain it.
- Leaky FlywheelA hypothesis that a useful cycle is producing value but leakage or decay removes more state than the next turn can reuse.