papering over the cracks · upkeep
Maintenance that covers a growing drift by holding the surface state, while the underlying parameter moves toward a wall.
ordinarily means: Trying to fix problems in a way that only hides them, not solves them.
Examples
- The Fukushima Daiichi reactors required constant cooling, but backup power failures after the 2011 tsunami papered over the cracks until meltdowns began. engineering
- Lehman Brothers' 2008 balance sheet showed stability while repo accounting masked growing leverage. economics
- Windows XP continued running on many ATMs past support end, hiding OS decay with patches until hardware failed. computing
Emergence
through: The surface is held while the parameter beneath changes without correction, narrowing the window until maintenance can no longer reach the new state.
- The thing appears intact but is drifting toward collapse.
Chain to foundations
as tree
- papering over the cracksL15
- maintenanceL14
- workL3
- parameterL4
- windowL7
- parameterL4 (shown above)
- rangeL3
- boundaryL2 (shown above)
- persistL1 (shown above)
- changeL1 (shown above)
- outsideL6
- partL1 (shown above)
- holdL13
- touchL3
- forceL12
- keepL5
- motionL2 (shown above)
- insideL5 (shown above)
- driftL11
- parameterL4 (shown above)
- changeL1 (shown above)
- goL3
- makeL4 (shown above)
- nothingL10
- noneL9
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- amountL8
- sizeL2
- quantityL7
- numberL6
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- distinctL3
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- othersL2 (shown above)
- othersL2 (shown above)
- spaceL0 (shown above)
- marksL5
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- partL1 (shown above)
- changeL1 (shown above)
- patternL0 (shown above)
- surfaceL4 (shown above)
- sizeL2 (shown above)
- numberL6
- numberL6 (shown above)
- offL2
- spaceL0 (shown above)
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- noneL9
- wayL9
- wallL10
- parameterL4 (shown above)
- surfaceL4 (shown above)
- maintenanceL14
Neighborhood
Concepts that depend on this one above; what it is built from below.