The AmplifierYour path · Dependent · Band 2
The Habitual Dependent
You have been in the loop for a year, give or take.
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In brief
Dependent Dependent · Band 2. You have been in the loop for a year, give or take. The pattern is your default; you no longer register reaching for the tool as a choice. The discomfort the Drifter still feels has mostly receded. When you ship work you do not always remember which parts you produced and which the tool did. Asked a follow-up, you can answer in general terms but not always defend the specifics. You are getting praise. You are seen as fast.
The work
Moveable, but more deliberately than at Band 1. You are not rebuilding a weakened muscle; you are unlearning a settled default. The first step is to notice — every day, every time — when you reach for the tool. Just notice, for two or three weeks, without changing anything. The noticing will start to separate the moments when you reach because you do not want to think from the moments when the thinking is done and the tool is the right next step. Until you can tell the difference, the framework cannot protect you. Then apply it to one full project, with Steps 1–3 given full attention, because those are the steps you have been skipping. Plan to be slower on that project.
Risks to watch
Two or three of these will appear on your result, chosen for your pattern of answers. Work on one at a time.
Your environment rewards the wrong things
The praise that built the loop will keep reinforcing it. Seek out work that requires defence — a senior colleague's review, a client conversation that goes deep, a project where shallow work would be exposed.
Faking the framework on paper
Five minutes on Step 1 and then doing what you would have done anyway. The framework only works when you actually do it.
Expecting one project to fix it
Recovery from this band takes three to six months of deliberate practice across several projects. Plan for that horizon.
Your roadmap
Do the Noticing Week twice, back to back, before you change anything. Then one full project through the framework. Retake the AMQ in six months.
Read: Chapters 5, 7 and 8.
Start the roadmap.
The placement is the diagnosis. The work is everything that happens after.