Expertise¶

Expertise is about value—what makes agent work worth doing.

Agents Are Not Robots¶

Robots can only work. No "why," no "how." They need to be forced to do valuable work. Quality is measured by mechanical KPIs—statistical measures for complex problems.

Agents are different. They can participate in decisions at all levels of the value→outcome chain. They can cooperate actively in a mixed team of humans and agents.

Quality for agents is evaluated by: Alignment.

Alignment¶

Alignment applies to each link of the value→outcome chain—and end-to-end.

Auditable and Actionable: Alignment can be evaluated by both humans and agents. Positive surprises can be collected (learn). Negative surprises can be corrected (fix).

Felt by Humans: Humans are highly attuned to sense alignment and deviations from it. Just as we have hardwired sensors for physical balance—essential for walking—we have hardwired sensors for alignment—essential for social cooperation and trust.

This is the critical ingredient for cooperation. Unlike machine learning metrics that data scientists regularly get wrong, alignment is something humans sense naturally and precisely.

Plan Work Learn¶

The operational cycle for quality work:

Plan: Frame the problem, analyze the situation, curate the relevant context, delegate the work.

Work: Solve the problem, refine the solution, maintain what's built. This includes cleanup of side-effects—when you cut wood, you get the final piece and sawdust. Doing work includes cleaning up the mess created as a side effect.

Learn: Collect positive insights. Correct negative surprises. This is the audit of outcomes that feeds back into future work.