Load

How hard someone is being asked to push — read from the person's side, in six plain words, never from a meter.

Idle — resting, available, nothing asked. Steady — the baseline of play: a few hours in the week, the floor of what was pledged. Push — a couple of focused hours a day, sustained; a stretch. Full — a whole day pushed, beside everything else a life asks. Redline — far more than that, bearable briefly and only with rest already planned. All in — something is genuinely at stake; every hour, for as long as it must be, and then recovery.

The reading is made from two things the person states: what they pledged for the season, and what this week actually asked of them. Nothing measures it. That is deliberate — the moment a load is computed from a trace it becomes surveillance, and people manage the trace (TimeEnergy, The Pledge).

The word was chosen over utilization on purpose, because the word shapes the response. Utilization invites a body to raise the number. Load invites it to help. When a Cell sees one of its own at redline it moves work; when it sees idle hands it offers something. A gauge read in common is how a group balances weight without anyone having to confess to struggling (Resource Leveling, Mutual Aid).

It is load-bearing because it is the humane half of planning, and without it the calculable half is dangerous. A plan can always be met by asking more of whoever will not say no. Saying the six words aloud at the gathering makes what is being asked visible before it is decided — and makes the Bottleneck visible too, since the person whose load sets the pace of the whole is usually obvious the moment everyone says their word (Rest And Regeneration, Wellness).

Also called: the load gradient · idle · steady · push · full · redline · all in Stands on: TimeEnergy · The Pledge · Capacity · Condition Opens onto: Resource Leveling · Bottleneck · Level Of Commitment · Position · The HUD · Rest And Regeneration · The Living Gradient · Range Of Tolerance In play: the table — each member says their word aloud at the gathering Sources: Projects/the term pages/Load.md (draft, unreviewed; the page states the word was chosen over utilization) · Projects/the term pages/Resource Leveling.md, Condition.md (drafts) · Level Of Commitment (wiki root; draft) · lionsberg.wiki: Level Of Commitment Open: The hours attached to each word are one body's estimate and not a measurement, and they assume a life shaped like the person who wrote them. · Nothing states what a Cell owes someone who says redline three weeks running.