---
title: Provenance · The Human Sandwich
author: Rachel McBride
collection: Provenance
source: https://ip.rowanadvisory.co.nz/verifiable-core/provenance/
version: v3.0
as_of: 10 September 2026
---

# Provenance

The Human Sandwich · v3.0 · last verified 10 September 2026

## Sources

Not everything behind this work is published. Where showing something would publish another party's internal working, the fact is recorded here and the contents are not.

## Method

A design principle of the Intelligence-Centred Firm, canonised on 8 June 2026. Its origin is a hand-drawn pictogram: concentric rings, with the raw record at the centre, intelligence as a layer over it, and the person at the edge holding both ends. The three properties were settled the same day. The published page states them in plain terms, checkable and chosen and owned, rather than the working terms they were first named with. It was called the Verifiable Core until 10 September 2026, and the name is recorded here rather than removed, because the decisions above were taken under it.

## How the work was developed

- **8 June 2026** Canonised as a design principle, with the three properties of the record settled the same day. Rowan's working record *(held by Rowan)*
- **8 June 2026** The third property settled as owned, over a live alternative describing raw fidelity. Rowan's working record *(held by Rowan)*
- **8 June 2026** The moat reclassified from a fourth property to a consequence of the three. Rowan's working record *(held by Rowan)*
- **16 June 2026** The name settled as the Verifiable Core, over two alternatives that both put a thing at the centre, because this one does not commit to a form. Rowan's working record *(held by Rowan)*
- **22 June 2026** First published. The published record
- **10 September 2026** Renamed the Human Sandwich, for what the shape does: a person at both ends with the intelligence between them. The 16 June reasoning still stands against the two alternatives it beat; this name describes the arrangement rather than what sits at the centre. This page

*One further working document, 18 August 2026. Held by Rowan.*

## How this record was made

- **9 September 2026** A publication record added. This page
- **10 September 2026** This provenance record added. This page

## Attested, contents withheld

The principle is held in a dated internal document that governs how it is stated and where it applies.

- **Withheld** The document itself, and the commercial position and named working examples inside it.
- **Why** The examples are other people's work and the commercial position is Rowan's. The principle is published; the rows behind it are not.

## References

None. This was worked out from a drawing rather than from a literature. The hypothesis it belongs to cites Coase; this principle cites nothing, and saying so is more honest than furnishing a reading list after the fact.

## AI use

I use Claude Code and Codex for drafting, claim-checking against source documents, and building this page. Rachel McBride owns the stance, the argument and every claim.

## Edition and verification

- **Edition** v3.0
- **First published** 22 June 2026
- **Last verified** 10 September 2026
- **Version note** v3.0, 10 September 2026: renamed from the Verifiable Core to the Human Sandwich. The argument, the three properties and the diagram are unchanged. The address is unchanged too: the URL still reads verifiable-core, because a permanent URL is permanent and every citation already published points at it.
- **The work this verifies** https://ip.rowanadvisory.co.nz/verifiable-core/

---

Rowan Advisory · Provenance · The Human Sandwich · v3.0 · https://ip.rowanadvisory.co.nz/verifiable-core/provenance/
Written by Rachel McBride. Quote with attribution. Do not republish in full.