REFERENCE · CARRY AT ALL TIMES
A field guide to the age of infinite typing
New era, new words. Learn them now, or learn them the way most vocabulary gets learned — in the incident review.
“AY - ARE”
THE ONLY CORRECT PRONUNCIATION OF “AR”
The vocabulary
Definitions are normative. Usage examples were overheard, allegedly.
attentionN.
The only compute that doesn’t scale. Requested by machines, spent by humans, budgeted by no one.
“We have infinite tokens and about ninety good minutes of attention a day. Plan accordingly.”
attention requestN. · ABBR. AR
A formal request for a human to deeply read a living document before, while, and after machines act on it. The successor ritual to the pull request.
“Don’t book a meeting. Open an AR.”
RGTMINTERJ.
“Reads good to me.” The sign-off of someone who actually read it. Successor to LGTM, which is hereby thanked for its service.
“RGTM — one question on §Rollout, answered in the margin.”
skim debtN.
Technical debt’s older brother. Accrues whenever approvals outpace reading; compounds silently; collected by production, with interest.
“The Q3 surprise wasn’t a surprise. It was skim debt, maturing.”
approval theaterN.
The performance of oversight without the attendance of attention. Green checkmarks as set dressing.
“Six approvers, zero readers. Beautiful production. Terrible play.”
quorumN.
The number of humans who actually read it, required before the run unlocks. Two by default. Rarer than it sounds.
“We have quorum — run unlocked.”
the marginsN. PL.
Where the steering happens. Agent questions land here as comments; human answers become constraints the agent keeps.
“He runs the whole company from the margins now.”
write-backN.
The agent’s account of what changed, what it learned, and what needs a human decision — reviewed like a retro, filed like memory.
“Read the write-back before the diffs. It’s shorter and it confesses.”
deep readV.
To read as if production will quiz you. Because it will.
“Give it a deep read before lunch — the run’s waiting on you.”
while-you-sleptIDIOM
The morning digest of everything your agents did overnight. Read with coffee. Approve with attention.
“Three goals moved while-you-slept. Two need your eyes.”
drive-by LGTMDEPRECATED
An approval issued at walking speed, between meetings, without slowing down. Superseded by AR-001 §4.2.
“He drive-by’d the pricing brief. The pricing noticed.”
vibe-approvalDEPRECATED
Consent granted on the basis of author reputation and general optimism. See spec error ERR_VIBES_ONLY.
“The vibes were good. The invoices were not.”
Diagnostic: does your org carry skim debt?
These checkboxes do nothing. Like most approvals.
0 / 6 · SCORING: 0 = SAINTLY OR LYING · 1–3 = INDUSTRY STANDARD, SADLY · 4+ = OPEN AN AR TODAY
Attention etiquette
The ritual has manners. They are few and they are firm.
DO
Read like production will quiz you. It will, and it grades on a curve of one.
Ask one question that makes the author think. A read that changes nothing was a nod with extra steps.
Answer agent questions in the margins. Every resolution becomes a constraint it keeps. That’s leverage.
Say RGTM and mean it. Your name is on the read, forever, pleasantly.
Decline reads you can’t honor. “Not today” is attention integrity. Quorum will find another.
DON’T
Approve on a treadmill. Any kind.
Reply “thoughts?” to a forty-page document. Nobody has thoughts. They have guilt.
Confuse speed with trust. An eleven-second approval isn’t confidence in the author. It’s a dare to the universe.
Delegate your read to an agent. It can summarize. It cannot mean it. §4.1 holds the line.
Schedule a meeting about the doc. The doc is the meeting. Attend it alone, deeply, for ten minutes.
Adopt the ritual by Friday
No software required. Software helps. We would say that. It’s still true.
1.
Pick one goal that matters and write it as a document. Intent, constraints, verification — four hundred words a human can deeply read in ten minutes. If it can’t be written, it definitely can’t be delegated to a machine.
2.
Require two real reads before any work starts. Human reads, in the margins, with at least one question each. The work — human or agent — unlocks at quorum. No exceptions for executives; especially no exceptions for executives.
3.
Make the doer write back. What changed, what was learned, what needs deciding — reviewed with the same attention that opened the work. File the lessons where the next goal will find them.
That’s the whole ritual. If you’d rather it be a button — with margins, quorum gates, agent write-backs, and a memory that compounds — that’s let.ai ↗. The ritual stays free either way.