The states a thing can be in — done, empty, verified, available. The words progress reports itself with.
Doing, considered as a measurable quantity. What is happening, counted rather than described.
As things really are, not as described or intended. Actual is what a check finds when a claim is tested.
Whether a thing can be reached now. A fact about access, not about existence.
Able to be had or reached now. Availability is a fact about access, not about existence.
Failing against the standard it should meet. Bad is always relative to a purpose, and naming the purpose is the honest part.
What a thing actually does, as observed. Behaviour is the only part of a system anyone outside it can see.
What stops progress until it is cleared. Naming a blocker is the first step to it not being one.
What a thing is able to do, whether or not it is doing it. Capability is potential held in reserve.
Free of what does not belong. Cleaning is removal, and every removal is a judgment about what belonged.
Free of what obstructs, and easy to understand. Also to remove — the same word for the state and the act of reaching it.
Closure: the state of a set of documents in which every name a document refers to is present, either inside the set or already living. It is answered row by row and never as one verdict — every molecule's atoms present, every organism's molecules and atoms present, every junction's both ends present, every membership's scheme and entity present, every relation's subject and object present, every path step's member present. What resolves is closed, what does not is open and named, and a name living in more than one tier is a conflict, named as a conflict and never guessed. Nothing falls silently: a reference that cannot be resolved is a line in the answer and not an absence in it. Seed documents and the living names in, the closed, the open and the conflicts, each named, out.
Folded down so its contents are out of sight. Present and not shown — the state is closed, not empty.
Having nothing missing. Completeness is a claim that must be checked, since a set can feel whole and not be.
The state a thing is in, and the requirement that must hold for something else to follow. Both are about what is presently the case.
Two things that cannot both hold. A conflict is a fact about incompatibility, not about ill will.
In accordance with what is so. Also to make it so — the same word for the state and for the repair.
A point at which what happens next decides which way things go. Its root is decision — a crisis is a turning, not merely a bad time.
At the point where failure follows. Also examining carefully — the same word for a danger and for the rigour that prevents it.
What holds when nothing is chosen. A decision made in advance, on behalf of whoever does not decide.
To take a thing out of what was chosen. Deselection restores an option that had been closed.
Prevented from acting, by condition or by design. Of a control switched off, or a body a world was not built for.
Finished, with nothing remaining. Done must be defined in advance or it never arrives.
Without moisture. Also the principle that a thing should be stated once and referenced, never repeated.
Changing in response to conditions rather than fixed in advance. Of a thing decided at the moment rather than beforehand.
Obtained by what one did. In this house dignity is explicitly NOT earned — the word marks the boundary between what must be worked for and what must not.
A condition where ordinary process must yield to immediate need. An emergency suspends the rules and must not be declared cheaply.
Holding nothing. An emptiness reported must be distinguished from an emptiness assumed.
Switched on and permitted to act. Enablement is a grant, and someone made it.
To make certain a thing will hold. Ensuring adds a guarantee where there was only expectation.
A going astray. Not a fault but a WANDERING - the word says one left the path, and says nothing about blame.
Already there before this. Of what must be reckoned with rather than designed.
Opened out to show what was folded away. The contents were always there; the state changed.
Anticipated in advance. Expectation shapes what is noticed, which is why surprises are informative.
Having not met what was required. Failure is information about a specific attempt, and nothing about a person.
Not meeting what was required. In this house a failure is a lesson without penance — information about an attempt, never a verdict on a being.
Located after seeking. Also to establish — the same word for discovering a thing and for beginning one.
The breaking of a whole into pieces that no longer stand together. Fragmentation loses the relations, not the parts.
How recently a thing was current. Freshness is a property of the copy, not of the truth.
Holding as much as it can. Fullness is a limit reached, which means nothing more fits.
Meeting well the standard it should meet. Good is always relative to a purpose, and naming the purpose is the honest part.
Idle: the state of a body that is given nothing and is alive nonetheless. No camera, no reading, no input at all, and still the breath moves the chest and the shoulders, and still the eyes blink. A breath phase, which comes from the house's own breath curves and is not invented here, maps to stretch tokens on the breathing parts. A blink is never invented either — it follows the body's own blinks where a camera gave them, or a schedule of beats the consumer names. Idle is therefore neither stillness nor sleep but the least life a thing keeps while nothing is asked of it. A breath phase and a beat in, tokens for the breathing parts and a blink token at the named beats out.
Deliberately not attended to. Ignoring is an act, which is what separates it from missing.
Present but not presently acting. Inactive is not absent — the thing is still there.
Not settled, and not settleable from what is known. Indeterminate is an honest state, distinct from unknown.
A small sign that reports a larger state. It stands for the condition; it is not the condition.
Happening now rather than recorded. Also carrying current — both mean a thing presently in effect.
The principal one among several. Naming something main makes everything else secondary by implication.
Things placed under the wrong named class. A misclassification is a claim that turned out false about its subject.
One way of operating among several available. A mode changes how a thing behaves without changing what it is.
Watching a running thing so change is noticed as it happens. Monitoring reports; it does not intervene.
What must be had rather than what is wanted. A need is measured by what fails without it.
No longer used, though it may still work. Obsolescence is a fact about the world moving on, not about the thing.
Not closed against entry or inspection. Openness is a standing condition, not a single act.
One of several things that may be chosen. An option is only real if declining it is also permitted.
May be taken or left, with neither being a failure. Optionality is only real if declining costs nothing.
Left without the parent that gave it context. An orphaned thing still exists and no longer means what it did.
How a thing turned out. An outcome is judged against what was hoped, which is why the same result reads differently to different people.
Having met the standard, or having gone by. The same word for succeeding and for being over.
Awaiting a resolution that has not come. Pending is an honest state, not a failure.
Able to happen. Possibility is a claim about what is not ruled out, not about what is likely.
What a thing could become but has not. Potential is real and is not yet evidence of anything.
A gap between how things are and how they need to be. Naming a problem well is most of solving it.
Movement toward a stated end, and the measure of how far along it is. Progress names a direction; it does not promise arrival.
As it should be, by the standard that applies. Also belonging to one particular thing — a proper name names one.
Unmixed with anything else. Purity is a claim about what is absent as much as what is present.
The state of being prepared to act. Readiness is maintained, not achieved, and holding it costs something.
Prepared and waiting to act. Readiness is a state that costs something to hold.
A return to a worse earlier state. Also the fitting of a line to scattered points — the same word for going back and for finding a trend.
The settling of something unsettled, and how fine a detail a view can show. Both are about how much is finally made clear.
To bring an unsettled thing to a settled state. Also to turn a reference into the thing it points at.
What comes back after a thing is done. From the Latin for rebound - a result is the leap returning, not the leap.
The chance of harm, weighed against its size. Risk is respected rather than feared — the two produce opposite decisions.
Not exposed to harm. Safety is a condition of the place, not a quality of the one in it.
Second in order or in importance. Naming something secondary makes something else primary by implication.
To pick out from among others. Every selection is also a setting aside of everything not chosen.
What has been picked out from a larger set. Every selection is also a setting aside.
What closes the gap a problem named. A solution is only a solution to the problem as it was stated.
Not of the general kind. Special cases are where general rules find out whether they were right.
The tendency to stay as it is under disturbance. Stability is not stillness; it is returning after being pushed.
No longer current, while still appearing so. Staleness is dangerous exactly because it looks like freshness.
The condition a thing stands in at a given moment. From standing itself - a state is a posture held, not a permanence.
Not changing. Also meaningless noise on a channel — the same word for stillness and for interference.
Where a thing stands at present. The condition it is in, understood as a position rather than a nature.
Having reached what was aimed at. Also having come after — the same word for achievement and for sequence.
The reaching of what was aimed at. Success is measured against a stated aim, which is why an unstated aim can never be met.
Brought into agreement across copies or across time. Synchronisation always had to decide which side won.
Already held by another. Takenness is a fact about availability, not about worth.
A trial made to find out whether something holds. A test does not create soundness; it reveals what was already true.
Something that lets you in and not out. A trap is defined by asymmetry, not by malice.
Last, and beyond which there is no further. Ultimacy is a claim easy to make early.
Not yet given to a holder or a doer. Unassigned is an honest state and a quiet risk.
Existing but not reachable now. Unavailable is not absent, and confusing the two is a common error.
Not verified, or not selected. Both mean a state that was never confirmed.
Not yet placed under a named class. Unclassified is an honest state and not an absence.
Made one out of what was several. Unification keeps the parts and removes the seams.
Not yet worked on. Unprocessed is an honest state and the ground refined things must be traceable back to.
How little time remains before a thing must be done. Urgency ranks by clock, not by importance, and the two are constantly confused.
Sound enough to stand. Its root is strength rather than correctness — able to bear weight.
To confirm a thing is sound enough to stand. To find it able to bear weight, which is not the same as finding it true.
The act of finding a thing sound enough to stand. Its root is not correctness but strength - to validate is to confirm something can bear weight.
The establishing that a claim is so, by checking rather than trusting. Verification is what turns belief into finding.
Checked rather than assumed. Verification is a claim about method, not about confidence.
To establish that a claim is so, by checking rather than by trusting. Verification is the difference between believing and knowing.