Raise The Cost
Each use raises the cost of the next; stop at the first skip and count the uses.
Formerly Retune
Tolerance: the same dose does less each time.
Seen in Roman Opałka, 1965 / 1 – ∞, 1965–2011
Try it on your work
Choose one action you repeat on the thing you're working on. Each time you do it, make it slightly harder to do next time: move the tool further, add a step, shrink the space. Stop when you skip it once. Note how many repetitions that took; that is how much the action was worth.
Pick a word you overuse in describing the project. Each time you use it, you owe one extra sentence of justification next time. Stop when the cost makes you choose another word, and keep that word.
Set a rule that every time a meeting, check-in or review is called, the next one needs one more person's agreement to happen. Stop when one fails to be called. What got cut was sustained by habit, not need.
How it has been used
Neurons use homeostatic plasticity to keep their activity within a workable range. When a network has been unusually quiet, synaptic responses can become more sensitive; when activity has been excessive, they can be scaled down. The system does not merely react once—it lets recent use alter what will count as enough stimulation next time.
Where it leads
Grouped under Let it respond to what happens