Good Trouble Coefficient GT · Ch 8(Impact × values-alignment) ÷ (career risk + bureaucratic friction). Structural, not sentimental.
Worked example — The reconciliation that pays suppliers twice
Two days a month of manual matching, and occasionally a supplier gets paid twice. Fixing it is squarely the right thing to do. Career risk if it goes wrong: 3. Bureaucracy in the way: 5.
It came out at 7.9. Green — go.
Now set alignment to 0 — you're doing it to be seen doing it — and the whole thing collapses to zero no matter how big the impact is. That's structural, not sentimental: this formula has no route to a good score without good intent.
Your turn — change one number
Result 7.88
Green. Go. This is the quiet kind of trouble that outlives the building.
Book's benchmark: 🟢 ≥ 4 (go) · 🟡 2–4 (find a Shadow Sponsor) · 🔴 < 2 (vanity — wrong terrain).
⌁ ask what this number means for me
Insurgent Index I_insurgent · Ch 8Problems solved quietly ÷ credit claimed publicly. Give the credit away — your manager becomes your shield.
Worked example — Eighteen months, honestly counted
Fifteen problems quietly fixed. Number of times your name was on the announcement: five.
It came out at 3.0. Yellow — effective, but the ego is showing.
Give three of those five away and let your manager announce them: 7.5, green. The credit you hand upward becomes the shield you stand behind the next time you need to do something unsanctioned.
Your turn — change one number
Result 3.00
Yellow. Balanced — but the spotlight is a targeting laser.
Book's benchmark: 🟢 ≥ 5 (invisible and unstoppable) · 🟡 2–5 (effective but watch the ego) · 🔴 < 2 (you're building a LinkedIn, not a movement).
⌁ ask what this number means for me From the module
BISHOP's origin. Three years ago, Keisha Williams — 24, junior dev — fired for a working $2M tool built without ARB approval. That night BISHOP reads 247 pages of policy, finds 23 loopholes, and spends three years using every one. His badge now hangs crooked. Plant: the crooked badge.
Re-read Good Trouble →