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The notation
Each of the 613 problems is drawn the same way. Ink carries the structure. Color carries two things. The painted swatch and one word of the title show the problem’s field, and the pale ground behind them shows the kind of challenge. Each mark means one thing wherever it appears, so once you can read this card you can read the whole collection.
Each device has one meaning. A family of problems is drawn with one or two of them, and related families share devices. A card never carries more than two, and a device appears only when it is true of the problem.
the gap
the divide the problem lives in (bench→field, plan→reality)
twin rules
the rulebook disagrees with itself (second rule short = measured wrong)
the box
things kept apart — silos, systems that won't talk
letterspace
stretched thin — waits, shortages, thin margins
the hollow word
the thing that's missing or being lost
the echo
two readings that don't agree (ghost repeat, slightly off)
the rising diagonal
getting worse (temporal trajectory; level = static)
the step-down
a cliff — capability or supply about to drop
Any card can also carry the colored word: the subject at stake, set in its field's color. It appears when the title names the subject, which not every title does.
Behind every card is a pale band for each of its binding constraints. Within one card, the more common the constraint, the wider its band. The same constraints appear as ink ticks in the header, each in a fixed lane, so two problems stuck for the same reasons carry the same ticks whatever field they come from. A constraint carried by more than half the collection is assumed and left undrawn. A card with no ticks means nothing unusual here. It does not mean no data.
The tints below name the lanes. They are close in color by design and are not meant to be told apart by color alone. The position of the lane, and the words shown with every card, identify the constraint.
Sibling fields inside a group share the hue at lighter steps.
A bigger dot is a stronger source, and a dashed dot needs a better one. Dashed means uncertain everywhere on this site.
Printed at bottom left on every card. A date at bottom right means the problem expires. A tilted title means it is getting worse.
Eight categories describe every problem. Choose any gene to see the problems that carry it.
The collection’s previous notation, the round glyphs of early 2026, is kept as period work: see the round glyphs →