Denominator problem

ideaactivereported

slug

denominator-problem

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. Product 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). Organizational 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.

limits

Talk-level organizational framing. The −17% figure is attributed via secondary citation in talk materials, not independently measured here.

relations

topics

agentic-engineering Agentic engineering

sources

vidal2026serious-agentic — denominator problem; cognitive debt citation path

json

{
  "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": "2026-10-01T18:51:07.176Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-01T18:51:07.176Z"
}