---
title: "How to read the atlas"
description: "The reading guide of the cross-section: the drawing, the seven rocks, the four depths, the groupings, the filters, the list, the controls, the calculator and the fine print."
canonical: https://moa.giglabo.com/about/
locale: en
---

# How to read the atlas

> Markdown twin of https://moa.giglabo.com/about/ — the same content as the HTML page, a fraction of the bytes.
> Every page of this site has one: append `.md` to any URL, or `index.md` to a directory URL.
> Site structure and the full page list for agents: https://moa.giglabo.com/llms.txt

A moat is a hole. A hole has a rock — what the obstacle is actually made of; a depth — how long a rival has to dig; and a tool — what they dig with. All 35 mechanics of the catalogue hang in this section along those three axes.

## The drawing

One shaft is one mechanic. The downward axis is always depth: the lower a shaft hangs, the longer a competitor needs. Colour and cross-section shape are the rock, thickness is the capital the mechanic demands, and the number on the cap is the number of its sheet.

## Seven rocks

What the obstacle is made of — and therefore who digs it. Human networks and minds are dug by other people: users, customers, time; money does not speed them up. Assets and rules are dug with money and patience. Mathematics is a choice of business model, locks are the customer accumulating themselves, position is a single strategic move.

## Four depths

Level 1, the shovel, is weeks to months — those are wedges, not moats. Level 2, the excavator, is one to three years: the zone a solo founder can reach. Level 3, the drill rig, is three to ten years and capital is compulsory. Level 4, the mine, is ten years and up: time is the raw material there, and a mine cannot be dug faster by hiring more miners.

## Groupings

The six buttons re-lay the same 35 shafts along another axis: rock, depth, capital, whether a solo founder can reach it, how AI is treating it, and whether it can be rented instead of dug. Nothing appears or disappears — only the rows change.

## Filters

A rock in the legend and a level on the ruler each isolate their own group and dim the rest; the two are mutually exclusive, and taking a core clears both. Hovering a row of the ruler lights that level's stratum in the drawing.

## The list

The switch in the corner lays the same 35 sheets out as text — name, passport, essence — grouped along the current axis and cut by the same filters. The address carries the whole setup — view, grouping, filter — so a link reproduces it exactly, and every sheet still opens as its own page.

## Controls

Drag to rotate, wheel to zoom. Hovering a shaft reads its passport into the status line, a click takes a core into the card, a double-click opens the full sheet — how it is built, how it is bypassed, the verdict. On a touch screen the same three: drag turns the section, two fingers zoom, a tap takes a core and a second tap on the same shaft opens its sheet. Esc returns to the overview, and every core has its own address: /#moat-7.

## Sheet II

The calculator measures the moat you actually have: twelve questions, four segments, an index and a depth on this same ruler. It stores nothing — the answers live in the link.

## The fine print

The matrix is a considered judgement, not a measurement, and the sample figures exist only on the first thirteen sheets. And the main thing: moats are almost never stormed, they are devalued — which makes the “how it is bypassed” half of every sheet the load-bearing one.

[Back to the section](https://moa.giglabo.com/#section)

## Related

- HTML version of this page: https://moa.giglabo.com/about/
- Русский: https://moa.giglabo.com/ru/about/
- Atlas: https://moa.giglabo.com/
- Catalogue: https://moa.giglabo.com/moats/
- Calculator: https://moa.giglabo.com/calculator/
- Strategies: https://moa.giglabo.com/strategies/
- Site map for agents: https://moa.giglabo.com/llms.txt