Kinds
The three kinds of claim
Empirical, value and interest — what distinguishes them, and why only the first can be settled by evidence.
Claims this part is about, and what each was answered with
Teams that sit together ship faster
Empirical→A studyWork should be something you go to
Value≠A studyA statement about what work is, answered with a productivity paper
The lease runs to 2031 and the rent review falls next year
Interest→A statement about who paysSaid once, in a finance update
three claims · one empirical, one value and one interest · one was answered with the wrong kind of answer
One claim of each kind, from the twenty-four counted here.
The three kinds, side by side
Empirical, value and interest. What each one is, what settles it, and the four-second question that tells them apart.
What makes a claim empirical
Not whether it sounds scientific, and not whether anybody has measured it. One test, and the three ways a claim fails it.
What a value claim is, and is not
The kind most often dismissed and most often decisive. Ten of the twenty-four claims here were of this kind, and they are not the weak ones.
The claims about who pays
Five claims, the cheapest of the three kinds to settle, and four of the five were never said aloud. They decided the outcome anyway.
The four-second sorting question
One question, asked silently, that tells you which of the three kinds you are holding — and therefore what to say next.
Why the sorting is never done
Eleven weeks, twenty-four claims, four sessions, and nobody asked what kind of claim anything was. Four reasons, none of them about intelligence.
Claims in disguise
Six disguises, how each one works, and the question that strips it off. Most of them are sincere, which is why they are hard to see.
Both sides make all three
The sorting is not a weapon for one side. On this record each side made claims of every kind, and each side answered the other in the wrong one.
The twenty-four claims in full
The whole record on one page: every claim, its kind, and what it was answered with. The rest of this site is commentary on this table.