{"slug":"denominator-problem","href":"/entries/denominator-problem","api":"/api/v1/entries/denominator-problem","title":"Denominator problem","type":"idea","status":"active","certainty":"reported","claim":"The denominator problem is reporting productivity numerators (more code, more tokens) without a product-level denominator (users, outcomes), which yields spend rather than alignment. reported [@vidal2026serious-agentic]","mechanism":"reported [@vidal2026serious-agentic] Talk warning: 8× more code — of what? Numerator without denominator is a bill.\n\nProduct denominators: users, outcomes, closed feedback loops. Cognitive debt is related: code growing faster than human understanding (−17% comprehension via AI-code cited via Osmani/AIEWF in the talk materials).\n\nOrganizational correlates: over-parallelization causing operator burnout (velocity sickness); backlog loss removing filters that previously blocked work that should not ship; feature Frankenstein under relocated smaller teams.","quantities":[],"limits":"Talk-level organizational framing. The −17% figure is attributed via secondary citation in talk materials, not independently measured here.","inventor_note":"","sources":[{"key":"vidal2026serious-agentic","note":"denominator problem; cognitive debt citation path"}],"links":["agentic-alignment-problem","verifiable-goals-prerequisite","reward-hacking"],"relations":[{"slug":"agentic-alignment-problem","rel":"related"},{"slug":"verifiable-goals-prerequisite","rel":"related"},{"slug":"reward-hacking","rel":"related"}],"topics":[{"id":"agentic-engineering","title":"Agentic engineering"}],"created_at":"2026-10-01T19:14:49.307Z","updated_at":"2026-10-01T19:14:49.307Z"}