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Equation #14 · Chapter 5
Soul Score S_soul
Soul Score
S_soul · Ch 5Σ(human impact × honest intent). Intent is binary: +1 genuine, −1 exploitative. The Mirror Test, quantified.
Worked example — Scoring one year of shipped features
Take every feature you shipped last year, score its human impact, and multiply by intent: +1 if it genuinely helps, −1 if it works by exploiting someone. The honest column — search that works, the export button — totals 20. The other column totals 18.
It came out at +2. Yellow — mixed.
On paper this is a good product. In practice it's two features from being a bad one. Kill the pre-checked box — worth 8 of that 18 — and it reads +10, green. This is the only number on the list you can move this afternoon.
Your turn — change one number
Result2.00
Yellow. Dead even. One more dark pattern and you're a mercenary.