Glossary
The words, defined plainly.
Every term used across the site, each in a sentence or two that stands on its own.
- Kokology
- Kokology is a method of reading how a person tends to behave from their first reactions to imagined scenes that have no right answer. It was popularised by Tadahiko Nagao and Isamu Saito's 1990s book Kokology: The Game of Self-Discovery. It is not astrology, tarot or a clinical test: it uses no birth date and no chance, and the same answers always give the same reading. What is kokology?
- Reading
- A reading is the description produced from someone's answers to the twenty-one scenes: where they sit on each of eight axes, a profile name, and the handful of their own answers that shaped it most. At Pills of Matrix it is shown free, before anything is bought.
- Axis
- An axis is one line along which answers are read, with two ends and no better end — for example 'steady' to 'leap' for tempo. Every reading has six shared axes and two that belong to the chosen book's subject. The six axes
- Drive
- Drive is the axis describing where the push to act comes from: inner (the work has to matter to you) or outer (an audience, a deadline or a promise gets you moving).
- Tempo
- Tempo is the axis describing how a person covers ground: steady (a little, most days) or in leaps (quiet stretches, then a burst). It decides whether daily-habit advice helps or backfires.
- Focus
- Focus is the axis describing how someone meets a problem: by building structure first, or by moving and letting the shape appear.
- Circle
- Circle is the axis describing who is in the room: solo (the first draft is nobody's business) or shared (thinking out loud, with others).
- Exposure (risk)
- Exposure is the axis describing what someone does with risk: guard what already works first, or step out and take the visible position.
- Horizon
- Horizon is the axis describing how far ahead a person naturally looks: near (this week is real) or far (years out is vivid, this month feels like admin).
- Balanced
- An axis is shown as balanced when the answers lean neither way strongly enough to name an end. It is reported as balanced rather than forced to one side, because forcing it would make the reading wrong.
- Personalised e-book
- A personalised e-book is written for one reader rather than printed for everyone. A genuinely personalised book changes its substance — which chapters exist, their order, examples, exercises and warnings — not only the name on the first page. What is a personalised e-book?
- Edition
- An edition is one copy of a Pills of Matrix book written for one reader. Two editions of the same title, for two readers, differ in their chapters, order and examples.
- Contents page
- The contents page is the list of an edition's seven chapters, chosen and ordered from the reader's answers: an opening, four chapters from the reader's strongest axes, and two closing chapters. The reader sees it before paying, and the book is written to it.
- Move
- A move is the single concrete action that ends each chapter: small enough to finish in a day, specific enough to know whether it happened, and sized for the reader's tempo.
- Mark
- The mark is a shape drawn from a reader's eight axes — each axis a ray whose length is its value — printed on the cover of their PDF and shown with their reading. Different answers give a different shape.
- Written to order
- Written to order means the book does not exist until it is bought: it is written after payment, for the reader's reading. It is therefore not instant, and it cannot be returned once written.