Most things arrive already compressed.
By the time we encounter them, they've already been shaped by thousands of decisions, assumptions, constraints and trade-offs. Most of that thinking has disappeared.
Plankton expands what's been compressed. It reconstructs the structure, examines the assumptions, exposes the trade-offs and tests the logic before compressing what survives into knowledge that can be searched, shared and reused.
What survives examination becomes reusable.
Plankton reconstructs the thinking behind ideas, products, decisions and systems. We expose assumptions, examine trade-offs, apply different kinds of pressure and capture what survives as structured knowledge that can be searched, shared and reused.
Every idea needs different kinds of pressure.
No single perspective is enough. Good judgement comes from applying different kinds of pressure before reaching a conclusion.
Success tells you what worked. Failure tells you why.
Most organisations only preserve successful outcomes.
The abandoned ideas, expensive mistakes, near misses and failed assumptions quietly disappear.
That creates survivor bias.
It leaves future decisions built on incomplete evidence.
Plankton captures both what survived and what didn't.
Because understanding why something failed is often more valuable than knowing why something succeeded.
Judgement comes from the whole picture.
Good judgement comes from understanding the entire landscape, not just the survivors.
Then someone makes a judgement.
Someone takes responsibility for the conclusion.
The objective is not to win arguments.
The objective is to discover what survives examination.
Reality is the final test.
Ideas do not become true because people agree with them.
They become valuable because they survive contact with reality.
Plankton exists to make that process visible.
Not to manufacture consensus.
Not to defend opinions.
To improve judgement.