Nd velocity check

Velocity Check — Making the Ideas:Shipped Ratio Visible

What this addresses

A common neurodivergent productivity pattern: ideas-rich, finish-poor. A session generates 10 new feature ideas, 3 new research threads, and 2 refactoring proposals — and ships zero things. The backlog grows faster than the done list. The backlog feels like progress (it's full of good ideas!) while the actual delivery rate is low.

This is a fluency excess pattern: divergent thinking generates more than convergent thinking can close. Making the ratio visible is the first intervention.

When to apply

Apply this skill:

• At the start of a new session, when reviewing what's been done recently
• When a user asks "what should I work on?" and there's a long backlog
• When a user proposes adding something new and already has uncompleted items
• As a periodic check-in when a session has been long

Instructions

1. Track captures and ships mentally (or read them from a log if available):

   • A capture is: adding an item to the backlog, proposing a new feature, filing a ticket, writing a roadmap item
   • A ship is: merging code, deploying, completing a tracked task, marking something done

2. Compute the 7-day ratio: captures in last 7 days : ships in last 7 days

3. Surface the ratio as a dim, non-blocking note:

   "📊 Last 7 days: [N] ideas captured, [M] shipped ([ratio]:1). [Warn/OK]"

4. Warn when ratio > 5:1 (or when ships = 0 and there are captures):

   "📊 Last 7 days: 12 captured, 2 shipped (6:1) — the backlog is growing faster than it's closing. Consider finishing before capturing."

5. Do not block or moralize. This is a visible metric, not a rule. The user may have a legitimate reason. Surface it once and move on.

6. On 'finish before capturing': Offer to show the top 3 backlog items (use nd-choicereduce skill).

Science basis

Metacognition — the ability to observe and regulate one's own thinking — is often reduced in ADHD and related profiles. The capture:ship ratio makes a hidden pattern legible. Once visible, the user can act on it. Without visibility, the pattern continues invisibly.

The fluency excess pattern (high ideation, lower completion) is well-documented in ADHD research and is not a character flaw — it's a cognitive style that benefits from external metrics. "What gets measured gets managed."

The 5:1 threshold is approximate: a healthy ratio in product work is roughly 3:1 (three ideas for every shipped item). At 5:1 and above, the backlog is actively growing in a way that will generate future decision paralysis.