Series · 10 parts
Asymmetries
Hiring, feedback, expertise, commitment, reputation: in each of these the two sides do not carry the same weight. Each part names one asymmetry, shows where it comes from, and asks what the side holding the advantage can do about it.
- The Psychology of "We'll Call You"
Why 'we'll call you' hurts more than a no: the psychology of asymmetric waits, and what both sides can do to keep trust intact while the silence lasts.
4 Sep 2026 · 22 min read
- Asymmetry of Stakes: Staying Humane at Volume
Your routine transaction is my life event. Why numbing at volume is structural, not callous, and what both the person processing forty cases and the person who is case forty can actually do.
16 Sep 2026 · 24 min read
- The Feedback Exchange Rate
Feedback runs on a hidden exchange rate: five minutes to give, weeks to receive, and honest signal that barely travels upward. What both sides can actually do.
21 Sep 2026 · 30 min read
- The Expert Can't Remember Not-Knowing
The expert can't remember not-knowing. Newton's tappers predicted 50% recognition and got 2.5% - and why clarity has to be tested, not felt, from both sides of the table.
25 Sep 2026 · 23 min read
- Being Someone's Option
You have one option; they have five. That gap is not a character difference, it is an equation, and there is exactly one move that changes it.
28 Sep 2026 · 20 min read
- The Iceberg Problem
You are judged by displayed effort, not actual effort, and how to make invisible work legible without theater.
2 Oct 2026 · 25 min read
- The Door Only Locks Behind One of You
A decision can be reversible for the person making it and permanent for the person it lands on. Why the door that matters is the other side's, and what buffers the harm.
5 Oct 2026 · 21 min read
- One Side Rates, the Other Can't Answer
One side casually rates; the other side lives with a permanent, aggregated mark it can barely answer. Why modern reputation is one-directional, and what both sides can do about it.
9 Oct 2026 · 21 min read
- You Remember Every Word. They Got 200 Messages.
You re-read the message you sent four times; they saw it for four seconds between message 87 and 88. Simon's attention scarcity, the spotlight effect, and telepressure — why silence is noise, not signal, and how both sides fix their half.
12 Oct 2026 · 23 min read
- What Doesn't Close
Ten posts on the gaps between people, read on two axes: can a gap be narrowed, and should it exist? What to close, what to hold, what to protect — and who has to earn it.
14 Oct 2026 · 27 min read