# Pillars and tags: how to read the catalogue

Every entry in the members library has two kinds of labels. They look similar on the page, but they do different jobs. This note explains both, with examples from real posts.

## Pillars: the friction you are facing

A **pillar** names the *type of career friction* a piece helps with. There are five:

| Pillar | What it covers |
|---|---|
| **Visibility** | Whether the right people see your work, your scope, and your trajectory. Promotions that stall, credit that lands elsewhere, managers who "circle back" forever. |
| **Role Fit** | Whether the seat matches your strengths and ambitions. Title inflation, manager tracks you do not want, specialist vs. generalist tension. |
| **Leverage** | How much the organisation needs you specifically. Replaceability, bargaining power, retention, counteroffers, the loyalty penalty. |
| **Market Readability** | How clearly you (and your employer) read the outside market. Comp bands, signalling, optionality, "we are like a family" culture. |
| **Timing** | When to move, wait, or push. Budget cycles, reorg windows, offer timing, industry contracting waves. |

Most entries have **one or two pillars**. We keep the list short on purpose. A pillar is a diagnosis, not a keyword dump.

### Pillar example

**["Let's circle back"](index.html?blog=read-the-room&slug=lets-circle-back)** (Read the Room) is tagged **Visibility**.

The cartoon is about a manager who defers every decision. The glossary entry is on *decision latency*: the gap between when a call about you is obvious and when it actually gets made. That is a visibility problem. Your trajectory is stuck in someone else's queue. It is not a compensation script or a market-timing log.

Another example: **["The desk next to yours"](index.html?blog=read-the-room&slug=the-desk-next-to-yours)** carries **Leverage**. The loyalty penalty is about how replaceable the organisation believes you are when a new hire arrives at a higher band.

**How to use pillars:** When you feel stuck but cannot name why, start with the pillar. "This feels like a visibility problem" narrows the shelf faster than scrolling the whole feed.

## Tags: the topics inside the piece

**Tags** are finer-grained topics: the nouns and situations the entry actually discusses. They cross sections. The same tag can appear on a cartoon, a Mailbag answer, and a Counsel script.

Examples of tags in the library today:

- `compensation`, `negotiation`, `mandate`, `promotion`, `titles`, `tenure`, `scripts`, `replaceability`, `signaling`, `optionality`

An entry usually has **two to four tags**. Tags are lowercase and hyphenated when needed (`market-position`, not `Market Position`).

### Tag example

**[Framework: The replaceability audit](index.html?blog=the-counsel&slug=framework-replaceability-audit)** (The Counsel) is tagged `leverage`, `replaceability`, `benchmarking`.

The pillars on that entry are **Leverage** and **Market Readability**. Those name the friction types. The tags are the specific ideas inside the framework: scoring replaceability, benchmarking against the market. If you finished that read and want more on `negotiation` or `compensation`, use the tags to find related pieces across Open Floor, Tradecraft, and Counsel.

**How to use tags:** When you already know the *topic* (a pay conversation, a title change, a retention risk), search or scan by tag. Tags link entries across sections that publish on different days.

## Pillars vs. tags in one glance

| | **Pillar** | **Tag** |
|---|---|---|
| **Question it answers** | What kind of friction is this? | What is this piece about? |
| **How many** | Five fixed categories | Open list, grows with the library |
| **Typical count per entry** | 1 to 2 | 2 to 4 |
| **Best for** | Orienting when you feel stuck | Finding related reads on a known topic |
| **Spans sections?** | Yes | Yes |

**Short version:** Pillar tells you the type of problem. Tag tells you the subject matter.

## Worked example: same week, two entries

Imagine you are weighing a promotion that came with a title but no scope change.

1. **Start with pillar Role Fit.** You suspect the seat does not match the label.
2. **Follow tags** `titles`, `mandate`, `negotiation` across sections for language and scripts.
3. **Read the Room** might give you a cartoon and a vocabulary teardown. **The Counsel** might give you a script. **The Open Floor** might have a Mailbag answer from someone in the same spot. The pillar gets you to the right area. The tags help you find specific entries.

Concrete posts to compare:

- **["Congratulations, you're now Senior"](index.html?blog=read-the-room&slug=senior-in-name-only)**. Pillars: Visibility, Role Fit. Tags: `titles`, `mandate`, `negotiation`.
- **[Script: The pay-correction conversation](index.html?blog=the-counsel&slug=script-the-pay-correction)**. Pillars: Visibility, Leverage. Tags: `scripts`, `negotiation`, `compensation`.

Same tags can appear on both. Different pillars tell you which friction each piece is really addressing.

## Where you see them

At the bottom of each article, pillars and tags are clickable. They open a filtered feed of every entry that shares that label.

If this vocabulary is new, skim the five pillars once, then ignore them until you need them. The feed is still the front door. Pillars and tags are most useful when you return with a specific problem.