{
  "id": "boiling-the-frog.drift",
  "term": "boiling the frog",
  "sense": "drift",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 14,
  "arena": "emergence",
  "domain": "everyday phrase",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "drift of a parameter through a window where no single change crosses a wall, so the thing persists until it does not, and the model did not expect it",
  "folk_gloss": "slow changes that go unnoticed until it's too late",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end",
      "model.representation"
    ],
    "interaction": "parameter change that is slow enough that the self-model does not update, so the window closes without a report",
    "novel_properties": [
      "emergent.window"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Detroit's water department cut pressure in unused pipes from 2000 to 2010, leading to widespread contamination by 2014.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Aral Sea shrank by 90% after decades of incremental irrigation diversions starting in the 1960s.",
      "domain": "environment"
    },
    {
      "text": "US inflation rose from 2% to 9% between 2020 and 2022 as the Fed held rates near zero.",
      "domain": "economics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "boil the frog",
    "boiling the frog"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — drift nobody noticed"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-boiling-the-frog.drift"
}