{
  "id": "cutting-corners.margin",
  "term": "cutting corners",
  "sense": "margin",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "language",
  "domain": "emergence.lexicon",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "Optimization that narrows a thing's window by removing parts that had maintained its boundary, leaving it near a wall where drift will end it.",
  "folk_gloss": "doing something in the easiest or fastest way, often by skipping steps.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "parameter.condition",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end",
      "drift.aimless",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "margin.spatial"
    ],
    "interaction": "folk_gloss",
    "novel_properties": [
      "emergence"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The 2008 financial crisis followed deregulation that removed risk buffers in mortgage lending, accelerating systemic collapse.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in 1940 after engineers omitted structural reinforcements to save material.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "Chernobyl's reactor exploded during a test where safety protocols were bypassed to meet schedule demands.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "cut corners",
    "cutting corners"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — margin eaten by optimization"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cutting-corners.margin"
}