# The Lexicon

> A working vocabulary for the overlap of software, agents, brains, and the way teams actually work. Coined terms, each with a credential behind it and no magic in it.

Source: https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/



The words I keep reaching for. Plain names for the real mechanics of working with agents, building software, and the way people actually learn, a few borrowed from how the brain works.



## In this section
- [Human Acceleration](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/human-acceleration/index.md): Pointing AI at people instead of around them. Directed acceleration: aim the technology at making humans more capable, faster.
- [The adaptation gap](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/the-adaptation-gap/index.md): The lag between what a technology makes possible and how fast people and organizations reorganize to use it.
- [Backpressure](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/backpressure/index.md): The signal a team uses to say it is overloaded, before something breaks silently.
- [Brainfault](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/brainfault/index.md): The moment you reach for the thing you were about to do and it is simply gone.
- [Brainwidth](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/brainwidth/index.md): How many problems you can keep alive at once, not how deep you can go on one. With AI, it's the new bottleneck.
- [Cognitive brownout](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/cognitive-brownout/index.md): The stage before burnout that nobody calls in: judgment dimming under sustained load.
- [Load-bearing person](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/load-bearing-person/index.md): The one the structure quietly depends on. Pull them and something comes down.
- [Mental garbage collection](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/mental-garbage-collection/index.md): The cleanup the brain runs during sleep. Skip it and working memory degrades.
- [Plasticity budget](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/plasticity-budget/index.md): How much genuinely new learning you can consolidate in a window. Spend it on what compounds.
- [Reindex](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/reindex/index.md): The rebuild you pay after losing the thread, before you can do any real work again.
- [Thinkput](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/thinkput/index.md): Throughput for thinking: judgment shipped per unit of focus, not hours logged.
- [Thrash](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/thrash/index.md): All switching, no work. What happens the moment you run past your brainwidth.
- [The onboarding cliff](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/the-onboarding-cliff/index.md): The capability drop-off around week six, when the welcome fades and the real work starts.
- [Capability under load](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/capability-under-load/index.md): Whether people can still do the work when change and pressure spike at once.
- [Organizational whiplash](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/organizational-whiplash/index.md): The reactive thrash when a team lurches between priorities faster than it can absorb them.
- [The augmentation gap](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/the-augmentation-gap/index.md): The difference between AI that replaces people and AI that makes them more capable.
- [Functional connectivity (of a team)](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/functional-connectivity/index.md): A team's capability is how well its parts stay in sync, not the sum of its parts.
- [Learning velocity](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/learning-velocity/index.md): How fast a team converts change into capability.
- [Training half-life](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/training-half-life/index.md): How fast a skill decays after training, without reinforcement.
- [Capability debt](https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/capability-debt/index.md): The gap between what your people can do and what the work now demands.

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This is the plain-markdown twin of https://iambenschmidt.com/lexicon/. The whole site offers one: append index.md to any page URL. Index for agents: https://iambenschmidt.com/llms.txt