Templeton Ratio
T = time_to_do / time_to_check. The ratio of generation difficulty to verification difficulty for any task. Determines whether AI automation creates leverage or doubles the work.
Why It Exists
Most AI pilots fail not because the AI is bad, but because nobody measured how hard it is to check the output. T = 1 means you are doing the work twice.
Rosetta Stone
Four circles, four readings of the same object. Each role reads the artifact through its own lens.
Verification leverage. T >> 1 is yield on cost; one unit of check buys N units of do.
Production time divided by review time. When the reviewer is the bottleneck, T is below one and the team doubles its work.
The check ratio. If it takes as long to verify the AI as to do it manually, you built the wrong automation.
The P vs NP intuition applied to operations. NP tasks (easy-verify, hard-generate) have T >> 1. Tasks where generation and verification are equally hard have T ~ 1 and no leverage.
Related Terms
Verification Trap - A task that is easy to generate but hard to verify.
AI Sweet Spot - A task where generation is hard but verification is cheap.
Proof Layer - The verification rubric, asymmetry profile, and verification cost analysis built BEFORE the capability.