The fifteen NADIR pairs this paper read, word for word (but for the four lines noted under one pair) in the English this study made from the Korean originals, each under the short title the paper gives it. Every pair has the status of a hypothesis; none reports a real event, person or organisation, and where a scene may remind a reader of one, resemblance is not identity. The studio's labels for authorship and review state are given in the line under each title, not quoted.
Who knows and who decides
Pair nadir:human:552, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
The distance between those who know the facts of the crisis and those who decide
The more steps of explanation there are, the more the context needed may shrink or be distorted. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
The more steps of explanation there are, the more the context needed may shrink or be distorted.
Coordinate the order through one channel
Handles conflicts and double commitments at a glance
A new bottleneck may form at the coordinator
When competition for shared resources and conflicts of responsibility are large
Each person in charge coordinates autonomously within their boundaries
Keeps the speed and flexibility of the response on the ground
The overall effect may be missed, or the same resource may be assigned twice
When the boundaries of roles and mutual information are clear enough
Bad news from below
Pair nadir:human:614, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
Unfavourable information from a low rank is also examined by the same standard.
The status of the source must not decide the weight of the fact. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
The status of the source must not decide the weight of the fact.
Decide after checking further facts
Reduces errors in assumptions and needless commitments
Costs of delay and lost opportunities may arise
When information that can be checked is likely to change the conclusion
Make a limited decision on current information
Checks the actual response while acting
Wrong premises may show up as costs of execution
When the decision can be reversed and the loss from waiting is large
A right to object
Pair nadir:human:676, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
Does the person who supplied the information also have the right to oppose the decision?
If participation remains a mere duty to explain, important dissent may be left out. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
If participation remains a mere duty to explain, important dissent may be left out.
Delegate the final judgment to one person
Who decides and who explains becomes clear
Bias in and dependence on the judgment may grow
When speed is needed and the scope of responsibility is clear
Key decisions reviewed jointly
Reflects other perspectives and interests
Delay in decisions and diffusion of responsibility may arise
When the decision is hard to reverse or has a large effect on several roles
Requests to the newly influential
Pair nadir:human:738, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
Personal requests that gather around one who has gained exceptional influence
A boundary is needed so that access to information does not become a channel for informal favours. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
A boundary is needed so that access to information does not become a channel for informal favours.
Agree the criteria and scope in writing
Reduces differences of memory and arbitrary exceptions
Negotiating and maintaining it takes extra time
When responsibilities recur or the other side's expectations differ
Start with a light agreement and review
Responds quickly to changes in the situation
Verbal understandings may differ, or the review may be put off
When the effect is small and it can be checked again within a short period
Reasons kept for review
Pair nadir:human:800, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
The reasons for the emergency meeting's decisions are kept so that they can be reviewed afterwards too.
Urgency is no reason to make accounting for responsibility afterwards impossible. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
Urgency is no reason to make accounting for responsibility afterwards impossible.
Record the reasons for the judgment and even the conditions for changing it
The next person can examine and revise the premises
The cost of writing and managing grows
When the decision recurs or is hard to reverse
Record only the essentials needed for execution
Keeps the speed and reduces information overload
Context disappears and later interpretations may differ
When the effect is small and the person in charge can check in short cycles
The allocation order that stayed
Pair nadir:human:862, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
The initial allocation order that is kept even though the information has changed
The wish to keep to a single decision can create new harm. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
The wish to keep to a single decision can create new harm.
Independent review from another perspective
Reduces blind spots created by relationships and self-defence
Time for passing on context and for review is added
When the stakes are large or the existing judgment wavers repeatedly
The existing person in charge discloses the grounds and revises
Keeps the continuity of context and execution
The risk remains of defending the existing assumptions oneself
When the possibility of review is open and there is room to admit error
What waiting loses
Pair nadir:human:924, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
What decision might be missed while all the information is being gathered?
A standard is needed for comparing the value of checking with the cost of delay. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
A standard is needed for comparing the value of checking with the cost of delay.
Fix the deadline and the time of review
The cost of waiting and the next action become clear
May become rigid in the face of unexpected change
When the delay is holding up other people's preparations
Adjust the timing as conditions are met
Moves in step with the actual level of readiness
If the conditions are vague, the deferral may go on indefinitely
When uncertainty is large and the conditions can be checked objectively
Responsibility without authority
Pair nadir:human:986, a hypothetical decision exercise filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis and it is unreviewed.
The responsibility for minimising harm alone is not left to a practitioner without authority.
The resources needed for execution and the authority to refuse must come together. It is a situation in which, at an emergency meeting allocating the remaining resources, a practitioner whose influence was usually low has come to hold key information. The importance of the information collides with the existing hierarchy. The scope of participation in the judgment must be adjusted to the new information. But the roles of interpretation, decision and execution need to be divided so that all the responsibility is not pushed onto the person who holds the information.
The resources needed for execution and the authority to refuse must come together.
Specify the roles first
Responsibilities and expectations become clear
Early flexibility and speed may be reduced
When repeated work and conflicts of responsibility have already appeared
Carry it out jointly for a set period
Roles can be adjusted while seeing the actual work
The ambiguity of responsibility may drag on
When the scope of the new role is still uncertain
The report that stopped
Pair nadir:human:1060, an episode-derived interpretation of a synthetic scene filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon present; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not.
Clients' questions that do not go away when the reports stop
Cutting back the reports to avoid questions that are hard to answer only adds to the uncertainty if the other side sees the situation by another route. Only if access rights are sorted out and the duty to explain is divided does the need for security not become a ground for closing questions about the future. If the stop in reporting came with an agreed substitute procedure, this interpretation must be revised. The choice should be made after confirming whether the stop in reporting was agreed and what the substitute route is.
A synthetic scene at a cultural foundation: the person in charge of operational reports at a cultural foundation explains that they stopped filling in the report sheet because questions from a partner company about its future plans kept coming.
Structure preserved: regular reporting stops because of uncomfortable questions. The structure preserved is that a choice is needed between stating the scope of disclosure and who answers, and keeping reporting limited.
The original organisation's rank structure and formal scope of delegation are left out, so the synthetic scene alone cannot settle whether the authority was legitimate.
Regular reporting stops because of uncomfortable questions. The interpretation is limited to organisations where this condition is actually confirmed.
If the stop in reporting came with an agreed substitute procedure, this scene cannot be taken as evidence of that floor.
Are you in the seat that decides, or bears the cost of, which of the two it will be: stating the scope of disclosure and who answers, or keeping reporting limited?
Whether the stop in reporting was agreed, and what the substitute route is, cannot be confirmed from this episode alone.
State the scope of disclosure and who answers
Reduces guesswork
Uncomfortable explanations are needed
The partner company is affected
Keep reporting limited
Preserves the operational facts
The questions about prospects remain
Future plans are still undecided
Neutral in a pile-on
Pair nadir:human:1493, a blackbox interpretation of a transposed, synthetic episode filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon past; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not.
The stigma on one who tries to stay neutral in the frenzy of a witch hunt
In a community where a mob lynching has begun, reason is only noise. One who tries to stay neutral is cast as an enemy by both sides. If you lack the power to save the witch, leaving the place is the only way to preserve what humanity remains. A post by a particular member has been distorted, and the member is branded an 'inside spy' and 'depraved' and is being publicly pilloried by the crowd. A single line checking the facts would show it is a misunderstanding, but the moment one writes a post in the member's defence, one will be branded a 'sympathiser' and pilloried along with them. When the comment thread is plastered with personal attacks and mockery of family rather than rebuttals of the facts, when critical opinion on the board stands at 30% or more and a dividing line where a post of facts could stop the collective madness comes into view, one should post.
A post by a particular member has been distorted, and the member is branded an 'inside spy' and 'depraved' and is being publicly pilloried by the crowd. A single line checking the facts would show it is a misunderstanding, but the moment one writes a post in the member's defence, one will be branded a 'sympathiser' and pilloried along with them.
To a group seized by madness, neutrality is aiding the enemy, and presenting the facts is regarded as betrayal. While the witch burns, no one asks which way the firewood is stacked.
Personal identifying information and specific wording from the original were removed, and the structure of the universal fork was preserved.
When the comment thread is plastered with personal attacks and mockery of family rather than rebuttals of the facts
When critical opinion on the board stands at 30% or more and a dividing line where a post of facts could stop the collective madness comes into view, one should post.
Are you one holding a stone, or a coward relieved because you did not throw one?
The actual number of operators behind the multiple accounts leading the lynching
Applying the brakes by presenting the facts
Stops or eases the digital slaughter of one innocent individual
Even one's own past posts are dug up, and the account is permanently suspended or one's personal details are spread
When one's standing in the community is solid enough to split the runaway opinion
Logging out completely and standing by
Guarantees the safety of one's personal details and account 100%
One watches a person being socially buried in real time, and a permanent scar is left on one's humanity
When even the operators have condoned the mob lynching for the sake of traffic and joined in the incitement
Exposing the primary
Pair nadir:human:1506, a blackbox interpretation of a transposed, synthetic episode filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon past; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not.
The timing of exposing suspected rigging of the party primary right after being dropped from the nomination
A clumsy exposure is not revenge but self-destruction. If you have drawn the sword, you must cut off the party leader's head; cut only the threshold and step back, and you will be nothing but a political corpse. The party leadership has passed over oneself, first in the opinion polls, and given a strategic nomination to the party leader's closest aide. One stands at a fork: set off the recording of the rigged primary poll one holds and smash the game, or declare one will not run and wait for next time. When the news desks have already given in to pressure from the leadership and are sitting on the story, if the leadership offers a back-room deal guaranteeing a high place on the proportional list or nomination rights for the local elections, the exposure is put on hold.
The party leadership has passed over oneself, first in the opinion polls, and given a strategic nomination to the party leader's closest aide. One stands at a fork: set off the recording of the rigged primary poll one holds and smash the game, or declare one will not run and wait for next time.
In the political world, a plea of injustice is nothing more than a loser's whining. Exposure becomes a weapon only when it can cut off the enemy's breath at one stroke, not when it is one's own revenge.
Personal identifying information and specific wording from the original were removed, and the structure of the universal fork was preserved.
When the news desks have already given in to pressure from the leadership and are sitting on the story
If the leadership offers a back-room deal guaranteeing a high place on the proportional list or nomination rights for the local elections, the exposure is put on hold.
Will you vanish behind the stage with the knife hidden, or set the stage on fire and burn to death with it?
Whether the prosecutors already hold internal-inquiry material on the primary rigging
Full exposure of the primary rigging and leaving the party
Deals a fatal blow to the enemies' legitimacy and secures a justification for running as an independent
One may be branded an 'insider shooting at one's own side' who destroyed the party and be expelled for good from the whole conservative/progressive camp
When the recording holds the party leader's own voice directly intervening, so that criminal prosecution is certain
Declaring acceptance and preparing for the next general election
Staying in the party preserves the organisation and one's share of nominations, and one waits for the next chance
One suffers the disappointment of supporters in the constituency and a rapid evaporation of political influence
When the leadership's power is so entrenched that an exposure would likely be buried by the press
The scapegoated executive
Pair nadir:human:1519, a blackbox interpretation of a transposed, synthetic episode filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon past; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not, and its line on what the transposition lost is word for word that of the pairs above.
When the powerful senior executive director's parachute project runs aground, the executive director made scapegoat packs up.
When you go under the umbrella of the powerful, you should already have been prepared to be the lightning rod when that umbrella is struck by lightning. If you decided to live as the tail, it is the professional's stance to collect the price even when you are cut off. An investment of tens of billions of won in a metaverse platform, pushed through by force by the owner family's powerful senior executive director, has ended in total failure. As criticism poured in from the press, the senior executive director placed the executive director on standby, saying 'the report of the executive director, who was the working-level head, contained seriously false indicators'. When the powerful senior executive director refuses a one-to-one meeting and sends the head of the legal team instead to push a settlement agreement at you, if the group's audit committee rejects the owner's pressure and formally concludes that the senior executive director bears responsibility for breach of trust, you should fight.
An investment of tens of billions of won in a metaverse platform, pushed through by force by the owner family's powerful senior executive director, has ended in total failure. As criticism poured in from the press, the senior executive director placed the executive director on standby, saying 'the report of the executive director, who was the working-level head, contained seriously false indicators'.
Owners and the powerful do not fail. Their failures are always disguised as dereliction of duty by the professional managers and loyal dogs who served them, and settled that way.
When the powerful senior executive director refuses a one-to-one meeting and sends the head of the legal team instead to push a settlement agreement at you
If the group's audit committee rejects the owner's pressure and formally concludes that the senior executive director bears responsibility for breach of trust, you should fight.
Are you the lizard's tail being cut off, or the sovereign who cut off the tail and kept the crown?
Whether the chairman has excluded the powerful senior executive director from the line of succession for good because of this affair
Tipping off the press and accusing the owner family of breach of trust
Defends one's honour and exposes to society the reality of the unjust tail-cutting
Is ruined by huge damages suits and criminal complaints from the group's powerful legal team
When the powerful senior executive director tries to pin even a charge of personal embezzlement on the executive director and send them to prison
A settlement guaranteeing two years of advisory fees, and an honourable exit
Protects the family's livelihood and secures real monetary compensation for leaving
Bears the yoke of 'the executive fired for incompetence' in the industry, and the career ends for good
When the advisory-fee settlement offered by the secretariat includes a clause granting immunity from all future civil and criminal liability
The emptied cabinet
Pair nadir:human:1523, a blackbox interpretation of a transposed, synthetic episode filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon past; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not, and its line on what the transposition lost is word for word that of the pairs above. Four lines of this pair (the judgment, the scene, the line on what is missing and the label of the first option) name a policy and an office in terms that a reader could take for a real episode. They are left out of this appendix, and this paper does not discuss them; the records keep them. Resemblance is not identity: the pair is a hypothesis about an invented scene.
When the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit bursts in during a change of government, the deputy director empties the cabinet.
The end of a bureaucrat without a soul is to serve as the regime's loyal dog and then, on the day the regime changes, be thrown as a sacrifice to charges of betrayal and abuse of authority.
When the auditor of the Board of Audit and Inspection says, 'We know it was all ordered from above. We'll save only you,' and presses for a written confession
If the policy decision process is found to have been a normal act of government that went through lawful public hearings and a Cabinet resolution, hiding the records is unnecessary.
Are you a public servant who carried out a policy, or a disposable thing thrown away after power had its sweetness?
Proves one was a coerced victim of the policy drive and escapes a prison sentence
Is branded across the whole civil service as 'the collaborator who stabbed the previous government the moment the government changed'
When the new government's prosecutors have already recovered the deleted e-mails by digital forensics
Destroying the records and insisting on the policy's legitimacy
Hopes for the loyalty of former fellow bureaucrats and political rescue within the camp
A charge of destroying evidence is added, an arrest warrant is issued, and one serves a prison sentence alone
When key figures of the previous government provide a large law firm's defence team and guarantee support through imprisonment
The emergency chair
Pair nadir:human:1524, a blackbox interpretation of a transposed, synthetic episode filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon past; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not, and its line on what the transposition lost is word for word that of the pairs above.
Right after the presidential election defeat, the faction boss looks for a pliable emergency committee chair to shift the blame onto.
Telling someone to go into the tiger's den without handing them so much as a pistol is telling them to die. The emergency committee chair the mainstream holds out is not a crown but a condemned prisoner's hood. After a crushing defeat in the presidential election, the boss of the mainstream faction that had held the party in its grip quietly calls in a young reformist lawmaker. The boss flatters the lawmaker: 'The party must be renewed from top to bottom, so you take the emergency committee chair and lead nomination reform.' But the boss draws a line: the power to form the emergency committee and the power to amend the party constitution will not be given. When the faction boss sets the precondition that 'for the sake of party harmony there can be no artificial personnel overhaul', if two-thirds or more of the party's lawmakers sign a joint petition for the old mainstream to step down and submit a blank mandate to the emergency committee chair, you should accept.
After a crushing defeat in the presidential election, the boss of the mainstream faction that had held the party in its grip quietly calls in a young reformist lawmaker. The boss flatters the lawmaker: 'The party must be renewed from top to bottom, so you take the emergency committee chair and lead nomination reform.' But the boss draws a line: the power to form the emergency committee and the power to amend the party constitution will not be given.
A defeated political force's offer of reform is not a will to renew but the work of finding a shield to take the angry party members' fury in its place.
When the faction boss sets the precondition that 'for the sake of party harmony there can be no artificial personnel overhaul'
If two-thirds or more of the party's lawmakers sign a joint petition for the old mainstream to step down and submit a blank mandate to the emergency committee chair, you should accept.
Are you a revolutionary who will clean the stage, or a doll to be offered as a sacrifice in a brawl of clowns?
Whether the old mainstream has already amended the rules of the next party convention in its own favour
Conditional acceptance with full powers delegated
Takes control of the party, clears out the old mainstream's vested interests, and rises as a next-generation leader
The party splits under the old mainstream's collective backlash, and one takes all the blame for the failure of reform
When one has secured enough of a stake in amending the party constitution to force the old mainstream out through a vote of party members
Refusing the post and demanding to serve without office
Preserves one's political life and avoids the muddy water until the old mainstream destroys itself
Comes under a framing attack from the old mainstream's press as 'an opportunist who turned away from the party's crisis'
When the mainstream faction is already rigging the next floor-leader election behind the scenes to defend its vested interests
The aide's ledger
Pair nadir:human:1534, a blackbox interpretation of a transposed, synthetic episode filed under power and the right to judge, in the phase of collapse, with the horizon past; its status is hypothesis, its source was reviewed and its interpretation was not, and its line on what the transposition lost is word for word that of the pairs above.
When the lawmaker I gave my loyalty to throws me away now that the hunt is over, shall I set off the slush-fund ledger and go down together?
A hound whose hunt is over gets boiled. But a dog that hides its teeth and dies is a stupid dog. Bite the neck while you still can, and the next hound will remember you. The aide was loyal for 15 years, managing the lawmaker's every irregularity and slush fund, but the lawmaker notified the chief aide of dismissal effective the same day in order to hire the lawmaker's own son as an aide. Facing the reality of a special-category post at the National Assembly with not a penny of severance pay, the aide holds in hand a ledger of the split-up donations the lawmaker extorted from companies over the past 10 years. When the lawmaker falsely reports the reason for dismissal to the National Assembly Secretariat as 'the aide's incompetence and breach of the duty of dignity', if the lawmaker sincerely apologises and, together with retiring from politics in honour of the 15 years of service, yields the proportional-list nomination, the knife can be put away.
The aide was loyal for 15 years, managing the lawmaker's every irregularity and slush fund, but the lawmaker notified the chief aide of dismissal effective the same day in order to hire the lawmaker's own son as an aide. Facing the reality of a special-category post at the National Assembly with not a penny of severance pay, the aide holds in hand a ledger of the split-up donations the lawmaker extorted from companies over the past 10 years.
A political master-servant relationship is not loyalty sealed in blood but collusion born of need. A loyal servant whose usefulness is spent is the first to be removed, for the very reason that they know too many secrets.
When the lawmaker falsely reports the reason for dismissal to the National Assembly Secretariat as 'the aide's incompetence and breach of the duty of dignity'
If the lawmaker sincerely apologises and, together with retiring from politics in honour of the 15 years of service, yields the proportional-list nomination, the knife can be put away.
Are you an abandoned hound, or a wolf tearing at its master's throat?
Whether the lawmaker has already planned, through another line in the prosecution service, to have the aide arrested first
Full exposure of the slush-fund ledger and turning oneself in
Completes the revenge of a betrayed life, unmasks the shameless politician and sends them to prison
One also serves a prison sentence as an accomplice in managing the slush fund and is expelled for good from the political world of Yeouido
When the lawmaker, going beyond dismissal, is scheming to pin an embezzlement charge on the aide and send them to prison
An unofficial severance negotiation with the ledger as collateral
Secures a post as auditor of a public enterprise or executive of an affiliated body and real provision for old age
One is shut in a prison of silence for life, carrying the fear of the lawmaker's targeted assassination or threats
When the lawmaker knows the ledger's destructive power and guarantees a sure price instead of a reckless counter-attack