Pattern

Braking engine

You might say: balancing loop, thermostat, diminishing returns

A loop that opposes change and pulls the system toward a level, like a thermostat.

Ask

What level does this loop pull toward, and can I move that level?

Sources

1. Donella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, negative/balancing feedback, leverage point 8A negative feedback loop is self-correcting; a positive feedback loop is self-reinforcing.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Braking engine" (pattern-braking-engine) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/content-creation/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

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