Giving credit for expertise

A question that changes the approach. A correction that saves hours. An explanation that finally makes something click. Some of the most valuable contributions to any piece of work never show up in the finished result.

Once the work is done, those moments usually disappear. The person who helped might get a thank-you in a message thread, but there's no lasting record that they were the one who got everyone unstuck. The next time someone hits the same problem, nobody remembers who to ask.

AI makes this both better and worse. It's easier than ever to get unstuck on your own, but when you do need a person, their help gets mixed in with everything else in the conversation. It's hard to tell where their knowledge ended and the model's began.

Directed keeps contributions connected to the people who made them. When someone joins a conversation and shares an earlier approach or corrects an assumption, that contribution stays linked to them. As their work helps others, it builds a visible record of their expertise.

We're building toward a network where that record does more than earn recognition. When your knowledge helps someone else, we think you should be able to get paid for it. It's an ambitious goal, and we'll share more about how we're approaching it in future posts.