Magic Underpants: Used in the expression “They wear magic underpants.” Refers to people who expect you to work for free. Unlike Tire Kickers who know they are abusing your time, people with magic underpants have no shame.

Maker's Knowledge: Core belief, part of iA’s Metaphysics. The Italian Philosopher Giambattista Vico claimed that we only fully understand what we make. In Latin: Verum factum, which means: “Truth is in what we make.” or: We know best what we created ourselves. This mindset is referred to as Maker’s Knowledge. Turned around, it means that creating a true product (a factum verum) requires that as makers we fully commit to understanding what we do. This may seem to be given, but, unfortunately, embracing thoughtfulness comes at the cost of slower development. Creating thoughtful products clashes with every modern business method that tries to save time. Today, everyone wants to beat deadlines, speed up production, and grow fast. Maker’s Knowledge may lead to products that offer extraordinary value—but understanding takes time. Verum factum as a business method is careful, slow, and diligent. It creates products that offer our customers what no one else does: Durable products that encapsulate the time the makers invested and save time for those who use them. The more time we spend building the more time our customers save. Embracing Maker’s Knowledge as a business comes with an untimely bet: that there is a need for great products. The Verum Factum philosophy was shaped by Giambattista Vico in strict opposition to the spiritualist traditions of Plato and, even more so, Descartes. Being the aristocratic Greek he was, Plato looked down on people who had to make an earning using their hands. Disrespect for the working people, also known as banausos was a common blind spot in Greek high culture. Descartes famously declared that the only thing we can’t doubt is that we think. Vico turned Descartes on his head and declared that the only thing we know through and through are the things we make. His perspective seems ultra-modern, but it is part of a philosophical tradition connected to Aristotle and Socrates. As designers, Maker’s Knowledge is more accessible because we put thought into things until they become materialized thought (compared to Kitsch). Maker’s Knowledge explains why we experience good design as more real than relativity theory.

Making Everything the Same: Core characteristic of Artificial Intelligence. The equalizing effect of AI is a logical consequence of how it works: It replaces the human struggle for understanding the relationship between the inner and the outer world with statistical pattern calculation. Favoring probabilistic patterns over statistically improbable ones bypasses any extra-lingual verification process. AI cannot ask itself “Is this true?” or “Do I know, understand and believe what I say?” since it has no understanding and no direct physical contact with the world. It calculates statistical language patterns without any direct input or emotion. Overall, its probabilistic calculations will lead to more uniform results as it starts feeding on itself. This becomes increasingly problematic the more people use AI without thought. To oppose this Agent Smith-like uniformity of AI, we propose to turn the tables.

Metaphysics: Synonym for basic assumptions, core beliefs or Opinions. Ultimately, metaphysics are a matter of belief. At the same time, any science is based on assumptions. In order to progress, we need to uncover and question our basic assumptions, and be ready to revise them if reality finds them wanting. Examples of our metaphysical beliefs are Maker's Knowledge, Everybody is always somewhat right, Entropy, Negativity, Threshold, and Interface.

Microsoft: The opposite of super hard. Sometimes this term refers to a company that has made spectacularly bad software for decades with equally spectacular economic success. Only firms that sneak micro softly through the years, growing steadily in size, power, and money qualify as micro soft companies. To become micro soft, you need to have managed to make some of the most complicated, buggy, and virus-laden operating systems, word processors that oppose writing, presentation apps that are designed to say nothing, waste time, and scare people to express themselves enough so they read from the slides. This is not enough. You then need to use your business acumen to control what the market does instead of being punished by it. You need to be ultra-neoliberal to turn all neoliberalist ideas on its head. A bit like Marx did with Hegel, but the other way around. The term "micro soft" is sometimes written as "Microsoft" to confuse and make us believe that it's an innocent software company that makes neutral programs that run on harmless little chips. In reality, qualifying as micro soft requires terrifying financial and political powers. You need to reach a state of influence where you penetrate society from hospitals, to primary school to university to the work force and retirement homes. You need to be able to strong-arm and mind-control the whole management stack. You need to infiltrate the industry to a point where everyone in a position of corporate power has to pick you to hide their lack of qualification, know-how, and raison d'être with unreadable layouts, cheap fonts, distracting animations, phony clipart, and fake charts. Apple Enthusiasts may disagree, but in the long run, it seems that micro soft firms might be the only ones to survive the current, global, mostly AI-driven trend to making everything the same. Micro soft companies are the original Agent Smith. They lack any identity besides relentless growth which is highly compatible with the viral nature of Artificial Intelligence.

Minimalism: A lifestyle choice that gained popularity in the 21st century, focusing on input reduction, less materialistic living, and noise control. Minimalists tend to own several single-purpose devices, have the financial means to avoid buying things for comfort or status, and enjoy discussing how little they truly need them. And like coffee nerds, matcha freaks, and pizza hipsters, they have a point—and taste. See also: Peak Minimalism

Modular Design: Core belief. Rams’ eleventh rule: “Good Design is modular.” Rather than designing layouts, we use building blocks that can be combined with maximum flexibility. Container-based Information Architecture plays a key role in modular web design.

My Sunglasses Are Bigger Than Yours: On the path to Ego Death, you will realize that the life-changing design idea you just had makes you proud of having the biggest sunglasses in the room. To your peers, it’s just another idea. To the user, it’s merely Advertisement. Derived from the song by the now defunct Zurich band Pola Music.