What You Are Paying ForAt the back3 min
Glossary
This book and The Inward Singularity describe the same thing in two languages. That one borrows from physics; this one uses an account and what is charged to it. If you move between them — or talk to somebody who read the other one — this is the bridge.
| In The Inward Singularity | In this book | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| The Inward Singularity | Nothing running | Attention gathered at one centre, with nothing being paid out quietly in the background |
| Vector dispersion | Forty standing orders | Effort split across many demands cancels itself out |
| Spaghettification | Below the minimum | Spread thin enough and nothing returns anything; a scattered self is fragile as well as thin |
| Mass density, internal mass | The reserve | What is left in the account when something lands. It is what absorbs a shock |
| Invariable reference point | The name on the account | Something that does not move, to measure by. It is not a number and cannot be overdrawn |
| Latency to zero | How long you carry it | The time between being hit and being settled again. Sixty seconds is the aim |
| Ontological subtraction (power 2) | Cancelling | Dropping weight rather than adding fuel |
| Thermal dissipation (power 3) | Same bill, different balance | The damage is set by what the charge arrives at, not by its size |
| Fluid adaptability (power 4) | The charge you cannot cancel | Keep the destination; change the route |
| Signal-to-noise ratio (power 5) | Which lines are yours | About five percent of a working day is the real thing |
| Vector resolution (power 6) | Signing it off | Decide once. Re-deciding is paying twice and getting neither |
| Event horizon courage (power 7) | The irreversible payment | Composure is fear with something underneath it |
| Harmonic resonance (power 8) | Setting the tempo | The steadiest rhythm in a room is the one the others fall into |
| Gravitational time dilation | A reserve buys the pause | Whoever can afford to wait is not forced to take the first thing offered |
| Horizontal stretching / vertical depth | Six accounts, or one properly funded | The same you, over less, goes deeper |
| Prime Mover | The one reading the statement | You set the direction, rather than being the effect of it |
Terms this book adds, which The Inward Singularity has no single word for:
| Closing | Stopping the payment, which is not the same as discharging the obligation. The book's hinge (chapter 4) |
| The interest | What you pay for carrying something, as distinct from what the thing cost (chapter 3) |
| An option | Something kept open in case, at a small continuous cost nobody ever invoices you for (chapter 9) |
| A joint account | Anything with another name on it as well as yours. You cannot close one alone; you can stop adding to it (chapter 7) |