“Freedom by having spare tolerances in your action → utility map”.
Resources are just one set of inputs to the function that maps actions to utility. Slack is what happens when your utility map has a plateau rather than a sharp peak.
I.e., arrange all your available actions on an N-dimensional field, separated by distinguishable salience. Then create an N+1 dimensional graph, where each such action is mapped to the total utility that results from that action. You have lots of slack if your region of maximum utility look like plateaus—that is, noticeable adjustments to your input don’t pertub you out of your ‘win’ - and you have no slack if your region of maximum utility looks like a sharp peak—that is, noticeable adjustments to your input almost instantly perturb you out of your ‘win’ and into a significantly lower-utility part of your action space.
“Freedom by having spare tolerances in your action → utility map”.
Resources are just one set of inputs to the function that maps actions to utility. Slack is what happens when your utility map has a plateau rather than a sharp peak.
I.e., arrange all your available actions on an N-dimensional field, separated by distinguishable salience. Then create an N+1 dimensional graph, where each such action is mapped to the total utility that results from that action. You have lots of slack if your region of maximum utility look like plateaus—that is, noticeable adjustments to your input don’t pertub you out of your ‘win’ - and you have no slack if your region of maximum utility looks like a sharp peak—that is, noticeable adjustments to your input almost instantly perturb you out of your ‘win’ and into a significantly lower-utility part of your action space.