Fable
After the accounting house charged by small wooden slips
The key here is to apply the concept's constraints to specific objects, rather than merely describing an outcome.
As scale and exceptions increased, the methods previously held together by ad hoc coordination began to expose blind spots.
Short-term patches restore surface order, but do not address what the concept truly constrains.
The old craftsman turned to recording conditions, actions, results and the chain of responsibility, so that subsequent adjustments had evidence to rely on.
The old translator taught him to cut text into common small pieces: sometimes one character per piece, sometimes half a word per piece, and punctuation could also take a slot. This step was troublesome and initially slowed the schedule; but after several rounds, rework decreased, and the master no longer changed the rules on a whim. Everyone finally saw that token count determines usable context, cost and throughput, and Agent systems should meter separately by input source.
First count the small pieces, then arrange context, budget, and output limits.
The apprentice finally understood that length is not just about visible character count, but also about how many transportable small pieces it is cut into. From then on, text was broken into small units before entering the workshop, and both cost and capacity followed those small units.