Every field ages its books differently — some keep the whole canon forever, some subtract on sight. Each card carries that field's own metabolism, in its own words. Tap a field to read its full probe.
Metabolism
Cumulative, not superseding — closer to scripture than science. Primary texts have near-zero obsolescence; only secondary literature dates. Subtract prior ≈ 0.05–0.1: keep the voice, cut only the commentary.
Read the probe →Metabolism
A two-speed library — a frozen core and a boiling shell. The half-life of scripture is ∞, of theology-of-the-moment is short. The sacred core is never subtracted (retire, don't destroy); only the devotional skin flakes off.
Read the probe →Metabolism
The most Lindy field that exists — obsolescence ≈ 0. A theorem, once proved, is true forever; only notation and pedagogy age. Age is a keep-signal, not a decay-signal. The near-empty subtract list is itself the finding.
Read the probe →Metabolism
Two clocks. Primary literature ages fast (a graveyard of dead theories, by design); the review article, the textbook, and the rare classic endure. Subtract by layer, not by age.
Read the probe →Metabolism
The fastest, most consequential aging of any field — out-of-date can be dangerous. Aggressive, safety-driven supersession (the "five-year rule," MUSTIE-M). Yet the humanistic classics age like philosophy. One shelf, two metabolisms.
Read the probe →Metabolism
A split personality — ruthlessly current and reverently canonical. The practical layer (statutes, cases-as-authority) is the most perishable in any professional library; the jurisprudential canon outlives nations. Subtract by role, not by age. The citator is a native subtract oracle.
Read the probe →Metabolism
Two clocks running in opposite directions: primary sources appreciate with age; secondary interpretation depreciates. But nothing is deleted — a superseded interpretation demotes to the historiography shelf.
Read the probe →Metabolism
The antilibrary's emotional home (tsundoku lives here). The canon is near-permanent; genre/disposable fiction churns. The load-bearing rule: "unread" must NEVER trigger subtract — release only the non-re-readable.
Read the probe →Metabolism
A reliquary, not a depreciating asset — obsolescence ≈ 0. The smallest, densest, most re-read, most memorized shelf. Subtract is nearly a category error; the memorized poems are a collection of their own.
Read the probe →Metabolism
The largest field in this library — and the one place owning a book can make you actively wrong. High churn, careful keep: the single-study finding perishes (and can turn false after you bought it); the framework endures.
Read the probe →Metabolism
The anti-Lindy pole — recency is a negative signal. The fastest-perishing serious domain (survivorship bias industrialized); a thin durable core buried under fast-rotting chaff. Demand a decade of reprints before trusting a single book.
Read the probe →Metabolism
Bimodal, not a half-life. The tool/version layer rots in ~18–24 months; the foundational canon (SICP, Knuth, K&R, Brooks) is among the most Lindy literature anywhere. Old = keep-signal, new = cull-signal. "Available elsewhere" is a first-class subtract.
Read the probe →Metabolism
The book is partly the artwork — the image is load-bearing and the object matters. Near-permanent keep (the catalogue raisonné, the image-canon), disabled utility-subtracts, plus a unique quality-based replace: the only domain where a newer edition wins because the printing improved.
Read the probe →The axis is the shared question, not a ranking — the cards are in source order, and each field's place on the spectrum lives in its own metabolism note, not in a coordinate we assigned. Full write-ups on the long-form page.