{
  "registry_version": "2026.08.2",
  "data": {
    "title": "Inflated-Requirements Search Saturation Loop",
    "status": "active",
    "evidence_ids": [
      "EVD-001",
      "EVD-004"
    ],
    "content": "# Inflated-Requirements Search Saturation Loop\n\nTeams write inflated requirements, filtering out strong generalists, prolonging open search, causing recruiter fatigue and mid-process role redefinitions.\n\n### Cycle Dynamics\nThis causal loop reinforces mechanisms across iterations:\n- `M-024` amplifies `M-008`\n- `M-008` amplifies `M-013`\n- `M-013` amplifies `M-024`",
    "id": "L-003",
    "type": "loop",
    "summary": "Teams write inflated requirements, filtering out strong generalists, prolonging open search, causing recruiter fatigue and mid-process role redefinitions.",
    "mechanisms": [
      "M-024",
      "M-008",
      "M-013"
    ],
    "edges": [
      {
        "from": "M-024",
        "to": "M-008",
        "relation": "amplifies"
      },
      {
        "from": "M-008",
        "to": "M-013",
        "relation": "amplifies"
      },
      {
        "from": "M-013",
        "to": "M-024",
        "relation": "amplifies"
      }
    ],
    "entry_points": [
      "M-024"
    ],
    "interventions": [
      "I-001",
      "I-003"
    ],
    "evidence_level": "hypothesis",
    "specimens": [
      {
        "kind": "posting",
        "label": "The same requisition, rewritten twice",
        "lines": [
          {
            "text": "Month 0 — 8 required technologies, 7+ years, staff-level scope. Applications: 340. Advanced to onsite: 2. Hired: 0.",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "text": "Month 3 — search still open. Requirements rewritten upward: 10 technologies, 9+ years, plus formal lead experience.",
            "tell": true
          },
          {
            "text": "Month 6 — search still open. Recruiter reassigned; team now covering the work with overtime.",
            "tell": false
          }
        ],
        "reading": "The response to a failed search was a narrower filter. The filter was the reason the search failed, which is the turn that makes this a loop."
      },
      {
        "kind": "chat",
        "label": "Where the requirement came from",
        "lines": [
          {
            "speaker": "Recruiter",
            "at": "month 3",
            "text": "Do we really need nine years and Rust for this? The backlog is mostly billing endpoints.",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "speaker": "Hiring manager",
            "at": "month 3",
            "text": "Nobody good has applied in three months. If we lower the bar we will get more of the same.",
            "tell": true
          }
        ],
        "reading": "The inference runs backwards: an empty pipeline is read as evidence that the bar is too low. That reading is what tightens the next iteration."
      }
    ]
  }
}