CONFUSION AND THE STABLE DATUM

unless an executive or staff member fully grasps the basic principles of confusion and a stable datum then the org board is completely over his head, the reason for posts is not understood and dev-t becomes routine. A post on the org board is the stable point. If it is not held by someone it will generate confusion. If the person that is holding it isn't really holding it, the confusion inherent in that area on the org board zooms all over the place near and far. Any executive getting dev-t knows at once what posts are not held because dev-t is the confusion that should have been handled in that area by someone on post. With that stable terminal not stable, dev-t shoots about. (HCO PL 27 Oct 69) CONFUSION FORMULA

the principle discovered by L. Ron Hubbard that in order to bring order out of any confusion, one selects one item or datum in that confusion as stable or motionless. With this one adopted as a stable datum, others can be made to fall in line. A confusion is any set of factors or circumstances which do not seem to have any immediate solution. More broadly, a confusion in this universe is random motion. And a stable datum is the one datum from which any body of knowledge is built, and around which other data align. A stable datum does not have to be a correct oneNit is simply the one that keeps things from being in a confusion. —Academy Level IV Glossary