SummaryThe Lightest-Pressure Type And The Fallback Destination
This type fires when an input reports what was seen, noticed, or experienced — noticed, observed, seems, appears, found that — without making a strong claim or directive. Observations deserve light pressure, not adversarial scrutiny. The challenge asks about sample size, context, and whether the observation reflects a single data point or a pattern. Prerequisites check that sample size and context are noted. This is also the declared fallback type: inputs that match no other type's detection patterns route here by convention, because an unclassified input is effectively a statement without a strong directive.
Type Identity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Slug | observation |
| Name | Observation |
| Priority | low |
Detection Patterns
noticed, saw, observed, seems, appears, looks like, found that, turns out, happened, occurred
Challenge Questions
| Question | Stakes tier |
|---|---|
| Is this observation based on a representative sample? | baseline |
| What context might change this observation? | baseline |
| Is this one data point, or a pattern? | elevated |
| Who else has observed this, and do they agree? | rigorous |
Prerequisite Overlays
| Prerequisite | Check | Gap message if missing |
|---|---|---|
| sample-size-noted | input contains "once", "twice", "every", "several", "many", "all", "few", numeric quantifier | "Sample size or frequency not noted — single observations and patterns deserve different weight" |
| context-noted | input contains "when", "where", "under", "during", "after", "in" | "Context of the observation not named — observations are context-bound until proven otherwise" |
Suggested Reframings
- Reframe with context: "In situation X, I observed Y; outside X, I have not checked"
- Distinguish instance from pattern: "This happened once" vs "This happens consistently under condition C"