{
  "id": "dichotomy-of-control.sort",
  "term": "dichotomy of control",
  "sense": "sort",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "Reading each wall as within one's own reach or not, then acting only on those within it and giving no maintenance to those outside it.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "reach.action",
      "parameter.condition",
      "wall.range-end",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "agency.capacity",
      "read.information",
      "time.dimension",
      "act.deed",
      "outside.spatial",
      "give.transfer"
    ],
    "interaction": "An accurate reading of reach is applied as a rule: the line between what one can and cannot set becomes the line between where effort goes and where it is withheld, so no work is wasted on walls set elsewhere.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "the can/cannot line used as a budget",
      "accuracy of the reach reading made into practice",
      "effort withheld on principle, not from despair"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Enchiridion of Epictetus opens by dividing things into those within our power, such as opinion and desire, and those not, such as body, property and reputation.",
      "domain": "philosophy"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "locus-of-control.attribution",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "locus of control is a disposition that can be wrong; the dichotomy is a sort that aims to be accurate and then acts on it"
    },
    {
      "id": "illusion-of-control.over",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "illusion of control files an unreachable wall as reachable; the dichotomy exists to prevent that filing"
    },
    {
      "id": "learned-helplessness.under",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "both stop acting somewhere; helplessness stops where reach is wide, the dichotomy only where it is absent"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "dichotomy of control"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-dichotomy-of-control.sort"
}