The book’s vocabulary

Human checkpoint

A person who opens the results before they become a document.

From The World That Agrees With You1 section of the book1 related post

A person who opens the intermediate results before they become a final document: reproduce the arithmetic, follow material claims back to the exhibits, check whether assumptions are labeled and contrary evidence was considered.

This is where evidence determines the recommendation. Assigning an assistant to produce a draft does not assign it authority to approve the document — and a missing installation charge is easier to catch in a calculation than in a confident thirty-page proposal.

Definition from The World That Agrees With You: Understanding and Managing Sycophancy in the Age of AI, by Timothy O’Brien. © 2026 Timothy O’Brien. All rights reserved.

In the book

See also