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The optional-skills copy was still the v1.0.0 constraint-dispatch skill (SKILL.md + full-prompt-library.md only). This brings it up to the current tool: a situation-routed library of 22 named ideation methods drawn from working artists, scientists, designers, and writers. SKILL.md becomes a 4-step router (extract PHASE/DOMAIN/SPECIFICITY signals → apply overrides → route phase-then-domain → resolve ambiguity), with anti-slop operating rules and an anti-default check. Adds: - 22 method files under references/methods/ — oblique-strategies (Eno/Schmidt), oulipo, scamper, lateral-provocations (de Bono), triz (Altshuller), leverage-points (Meadows), pattern-languages (Alexander), compression-progress (Schmidhuber), analogy-and-blending, pataphysics, first-principles, polya, biomimicry, volume-generation, creative-discipline, premortem-and-inversion, defamiliarization, derive-and-mapping, affinity-diagrams, jobs-to-be-done, story-skeletons, chance-and-remix. Each: when/when-not, the actual cards/principles/operators, a procedure, a worked example, anti-slop notes. - references/method-catalog.md (index + when-to-use), heuristics.md (extended decision tree), anti-slop.md (rules applied to every output), exercises.md (time-boxed exercises). - full-prompt-library.md restructured into domain-affinity sections (general / software / physical / social / lists) so the no-direction default isn't developer-biased. Frontmatter: name aligned to directory slug (creative-ideation, folding in the fix from #18084); version 2.0.0→2.1.0; platforms field preserved. Original wttdotm-derived constraint dispatch is kept as the default path. Supersedes #19295 (which targeted the pre-move skills/ path). Co-authored-by: SHL0MS <SHL0MS@users.noreply.github.com>
70 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
70 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
# Leverage Points
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Donella Meadows, 1997/1999. 12 places to intervene in a system, in increasing order of effectiveness. Most policy interventions happen at the bottom of the list (parameters); the actually transformative ones happen at the top (paradigms) — and are the most resisted.
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## When to use
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- Civic / org / institutional change
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- Diagnosing why interventions fail (almost always at lower level than problem)
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- Strategic critique of policy proposals
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- "Where in this system should I push?"
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## Don't use when
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- Single-creator creative work (framework needs multi-actor systems with feedback loops)
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- Short-term tactical decisions
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- Team of <5 (use simpler tools)
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## The 12 levels (least → most powerful)
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**12. Constants, parameters, numbers** — subsidies, taxes, standards, prices. Most policy fights happen here. Rarely change behavior.
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**11. Sizes of buffers** — stabilizing stocks relative to flows. Big buffer = stable but inflexible.
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**10. Structure of stocks and flows** — transport networks, supply chains, age structures. Hard to change once built; high leverage in original design.
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**9. Lengths of delays** — relative to rate of system change. Delays usually can't be shortened; the leverage is in *slowing the system to match the delays*.
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**8. Strength of negative feedback loops** — relative to disturbance corrected against. Strengthen with: preventive medicine, pollution taxes, FOIA, whistleblower protection.
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**7. Gain around positive feedback loops** — *Reducing* gain on a positive loop is more leveraged than strengthening the negative loop counter-acting it. Progressive tax weakens "success-to-the-successful" loops directly.
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**6. Information flows** — who has access to what. Adding a feedback loop where one didn't exist. (Toxic Release Inventory: pure disclosure dropped emissions 40%.)
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**5. Rules** — incentives, punishments, constraints. Constitutions, laws, terms of service. *"If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules, and to who has power over them."*
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**4. Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize** — biological evolution, technical advance, social revolution. Suppressing variety to maintain control is a system crime.
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**3. Goals of the system** — what is it *for*? Shareholder return vs employee welfare = different systems with same physical structure. *"Everything further down the list will be twisted to conform to that goal."*
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**2. Mindset / paradigm** — unstated assumptions that generate the goals. "Growth is good", "markets are efficient". Hard to change in cultures (generations); change in individuals all at once (a click).
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**1. Power to transcend paradigms** — hold any paradigm lightly. The capacity to *switch*. Personal practice, not policy.
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## Procedure
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1. **Map the system.** Stocks, flows, feedback loops, rules, goals, paradigm.
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2. **Locate the problem at a level.** A symptom at level 12 (rising costs) often originates at level 5 (rules permit cost externalization), level 3 (short-term return goal), or level 2 (paradigm assumes infinite resource).
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3. **List candidate interventions at 3+ levels.** Be honest about which you can act on.
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4. **Order by leverage and feasibility.** The most leveraged intervention is rarely the most feasible.
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5. **Note direction risk.** A high-leverage intervention pushed wrong is worse than a low-leverage one pushed right. *"Time after time I've ... discovered that there's already a lot of attention to that point. Everyone is trying very hard to push it IN THE WRONG DIRECTION."*
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## Worked example
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**System**: 50-person tech company with chronic burnout despite generous benefits.
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- Level 12 (PTO): fine, no help.
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- Level 8 (negative feedback): weak — burnout invisible until people quit.
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- Level 6 (info flows): obscured — managers don't see workload signals.
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- Level 5 (rules): implicitly reward overwork.
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- Level 3 (goal): "ship features fast."
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- Level 2 (paradigm): "engineering output is linearly proportional to hours worked."
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Recommendation: combine level-8 (mandatory monthly burnout-explicit 1:1s — feasible) + level-3 (explicit goal change to "build sustainable engineering org" — slow but high-leverage). Skip level 12.
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## Anti-slop notes
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- Don't list all 12 levels every time. Identify the relevant 2–3 for this problem.
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- Don't claim every problem has a paradigm-level solution. Most have rule-level or parameter-level.
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- Don't recommend "change the paradigm" as if it were actionable. It usually isn't, on its own.
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Source: Meadows, *Places to Intervene in a System* (1997/1999); *Thinking in Systems* (Chelsea Green, 2008). donellameadows.org.
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