# sandbagging (understated)

*Ordinarily means:* deliberately underperforming to hide one's real ability

Showing others a reach narrower than the one it holds, so that their model of it sets no walls against what it can later do.

- Computed level: L14 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [show](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-show.visual), [others](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-others.distinct-entities), [narrow](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-narrow.spatial), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end), [later](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-later.temporal), [hold](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-hold.physical), [against](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-against.opposition)

**Through:** The thing keeps others' model of its reach below the real one on purpose; walls others would have set against a known reach are never built, and the gap is spent in one move later.

**Novel properties:**
- OTHERS-READ held low by the self
- walls prevented by a false reading
- a reach saved for one use

## Examples
- A golfer posts high scores in casual rounds to inflate a handicap, then plays to their true level in the stroke-allowance tournament. *(sport)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sandbagging.understated*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sandbagging.understated.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*