What I Still Don't Know About Accountability
PEACH now has a name, a frame, and a site.
But it’s still running on 100% assumptions.
That is no longer acceptable.
What I currently believe
I believe accountability can be internal and external.
Internal accountability matters when someone already trusts themselves. External accountability matters when they don’t.
This sounds reasonable. It may also be wrong.
Where this belief is weak
I don’t yet know when external accountability helps and when it backfires.
For some people:
- external pressure creates movement
For others:
- it increases avoidance
- it triggers shame
- it reinforces the feeling of being “behind”
The same mechanism may produce opposite outcomes depending on timing and identity state.
Right now, I don’t have a model for that. That’s a problem.
The real risk
If I get this wrong, PEACH becomes harmful instead of helpful.
Well-intended scaffolding could:
- accelerate disengagement
- deepen self-distrust
- optimize for compliance instead of agency
That would violate the core premise of PEACH.
What would disconfirm my assumption
Any of the following would force a rethink:
- people who only move after clarity, never before
- people who shut down under accountability, even when it’s light
- people for whom external pressure delays action rather than enabling it
I need to find these cases early.
What I’m doing next
I’m not designing around this yet. I’m testing it.
That means customer discovery interviews focused on:
- when accountability helped
- when it harmed
- what changed the outcome
Until that’s clearer, PEACH stays deliberately incomplete.
Uncertainty isn’t a phase. It’s the input.