The method
How a reading works, and what it is not.
Three faces of strain, a published rubric, an AI that names themes without inventing numbers, and a human for the decisions.
Three Faces of Urban Stress
Status anxiety, loneliness and burnout. Twelve questions, four per face, each about the last 30 days.
Face scores and Living Code
Each answer scores 0 to 4. A face score is its four answers out of 16, shown out of 100; higher means more strain. One question per face is reversed to catch careless answers. Living Code is 100 minus the average of the three faces; higher means stronger. It is a fixed sum anyone can check, a coaching indicator that has not yet been validated as a psychological measure.
Themes, not a score
When you talk it through with an AI coach, the reading names each theme Low, Moderate or High and shows the words of yours it is based on. It gives no score out of 100 and no percentages, because a language model's estimate is not a measurement.
A human coach decides
AI coaches reflect with you between sessions. Any plan is set with Dr. RSM on a Clarity Call. The question wording is pending review by a licensed advisor.
What your Living Code means.
- 80+
Thriving
Protect it. Join the weekly webinar.
- 60 to 79
Steady
Book a Clarity Call.
- 40 to 59
Strained
Book a Clarity Call this week.
- Under 40
Depleted
Talk to a human within 48 hours. Crisis lines are always open.
The research behind each face.
Status anxiety
People in more unequal countries report more status anxiety at every income level.
Layte and Whelan, European Sociological Review, 2014Loneliness
Weak social relationships carry a mortality risk comparable to well known risk factors such as smoking.
Holt Lunstad, Smith and Layton, PLoS Medicine, 2010Burnout
The World Health Organization lists burnout as an occupational phenomenon in ICD 11, not a medical condition.
World Health Organization, 2019
What it is, and what it is not.
It reads
How often you have felt these three kinds of strain in the last 30 days, and how that changes when you retake it. For adults 18 and over.
It does not
Diagnose any mental health condition, replace a doctor or therapist, give financial advice, or predict your future. It must never be used for hiring, promotion, insurance, school or legal decisions. It is a starting point for a conversation.
How we keep it safe
Crisis language stops the AI, shows helplines and alerts a named person on our team. Readings are kept 12 months unless you delete them sooner, and you can export or delete everything from Privacy.
What comes next
Reliability testing of the questions, then checking scores against how people actually do over time, then publishing the method. Until then, we call it what it is: a coaching indicator.
Question wording version 1, October 2026, pending sign off by our licensed advisors.